History of Measles: From a 9th-Century Account to Elimination in the United States

The measles virus. Image from CDC's page.

Before the vaccine

• 9th century: a Persian doctor published one of the first written accounts of measles.
• 1757: the Scottish physician Francis Home showed that measles is caused by an infectious agent in the blood of patients.
• 1912: measles became nationally notifiable in the United States — health care providers and laboratories had to report every diagnosed case. In the first decade of reporting, an average of 6,000 measles-related deaths were reported each year.

The decade before the vaccine (which arrived in 1963): nearly all children had measles by age 15, and an estimated 3 to 4 million people in the United States were infected every year. Among the cases reported each year, an estimated:

Making a vaccine

• 1954: during a measles outbreak in Boston, John F. Enders and Dr. Thomas C. Peebles took blood samples from several sick students, hoping to isolate the virus and make a vaccine. They succeeded with the blood of 13-year-old David Edmonston.
• 1963: Enders and colleagues turned their Edmonston-B strain into a vaccine, licensed in the United States.
• 1968: an improved, further weakened vaccine developed by Maurice Hilleman and colleagues began to be distributed. This Edmonston-Enders strain (formerly "Moraten") has been the only measles vaccine used in the United States since 1968.

Today measles vaccine usually comes combined: with mumps and rubella (MMR), or with mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV). More: CDC's Measles Vaccination.

Toward elimination

• 1978: CDC set a goal of eliminating measles by 1982. The goal was missed, but widespread vaccination drastically reduced the disease: in 1981, reported cases were 80% lower than the year before.
• 1989: measles outbreaks among vaccinated school-aged children led the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) to recommend a second dose of MMR for all children. With that second dose widely given, and better first-dose coverage, reported cases fell further.
• 2000: measles was declared eliminated from the United States — no continuous spread of the disease for more than 12 months. Credit goes to a highly effective vaccination program at home and better measles control across the Americas. CDC's page states that the United States has kept that status for more than 20 years.

Further reading

• MMWR: Progress Toward Measles Elimination — Worldwide, 2000–2022
• Journal of Infectious Diseases: Measles Epidemiology in the United States
• History of Vaccines: Measles Timeline

Sources

Based on "History of Measles," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain.