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Recent focus on potential adverse reactions to vaccines has drawn attention from the remarkable efficacy of many vaccines. To better define the benefits of current U.S. immunization policy, CDC investigators reviewed historical data for the 13 vaccine-preventable diseases for which national recommendations were in place before 2005. For each disease, morbidity and mortality were estimated in the pre-vaccine era and compared with 2004–2006 data from the CDC’s National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System.
Widespread implementation of vaccine programs in the U.S. has led to a >99% decline in cases of diphtheria (100%), measles (99.9%), paralytic poliomyelitis (100%), rubella (99.9%), smallpox (100%), and invasive Haemophilus influenzae type…