Timeline of human vaccines

This is a timeline of the development of prophylactic human vaccines. Early vaccines may be listed by the first year of development or testing, but later entries usually show the year the vaccine finished trials and became available on the market. Although vaccines exist for the diseases listed below, only smallpox has been eliminated worldwide. The other vaccine-preventable illnesses continue to cause millions of deaths each year.

18th century

1796 – Edward Jenner develops and documents first vaccine for smallpox.

19th century

1881 - First vaccine for anthrax by Louis Pasteur
1884-1885 – First vaccine for cholera by Jaime Ferran y Clua
1885 – First vaccine for rabies by Louis Pasteur and Émile Roux
1890 – First vaccine for tetanus by Emil von Behring
1896 – First vaccine for typhoid fever by Almroth Edward Wright, Richard Pfeiffer, and Wilhelm Kolle
1897 – First vaccine for bubonic plague by Waldemar Haffkine

20th century

1921 – First vaccine for tuberculosis by Albert Calmette
1923 – First vaccine for diphtheria by Gaston Ramon, Emil von Behring and Kitasato Shibasaburō
1924 – First vaccine for scarlet fever by George F. Dick and Gladys Dick
1924 – First inactive vaccine for tetanus by Gaston Ramon, C. Zoeller and P. Descombey
1926 – First vaccine for pertussis by Leila Denmark
1932 – First vaccine for yellow fever by Max Theiler and Jean Laigret
1937 – First vaccine for typhus by Rudolf Weigl, Ludwik Fleck and Hans Zinsser
1937 – First vaccine for influenza by Anatol Smorodintsev
1941 – First vaccine for tick-borne encephalitis
1952 – First vaccine for polio by a Jonas Salk
1954 – First vaccine for Japanese encephalitis
1957 – First vaccine for adenovirus-4 and 7
1962 – First oral vaccine for polio by Albert Sabin
1963 – First vaccine for measles by John Franklin Enders
1967 – First vaccine for mumps
1970 – First vaccine for rubella
1977 – First vaccine for pneumonia
1978 – First vaccine for meningitis
1980 – Smallpox declared eradicated worldwide due to vaccination efforts
1981 – First vaccine for hepatitis B
1984 – First vaccine for chicken pox
1985 – First vaccine for Haemophilus influenzae type b
1989 – First vaccine for Q fever
1990 – First vaccine for hantavirus hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome
1991 – First vaccine for hepatitis A
1998 – First vaccine for Lyme disease
1998 – First vaccine for rotavirus

21st century

2000 – First pneumococcal conjugate vaccine approved in the U.S.
2003 – First nasal influenza vaccine approved in U.S.
2003 – First vaccine for Argentine hemorrhagic fever.
2006 – First vaccine for human papillomavirus
2006 – First herpes zoster vaccine for shingles
2011 – First vaccine for non-small-cell lung carcinoma
2012 – First vaccine for hepatitis E
2012 – First quadrivalent influenza vaccine
2013 – First vaccine for enterovirus 71, one cause of hand, foot, and mouth disease
2015 – First vaccine for malaria
2015 – First vaccine for dengue fever
2019 – First vaccine for Ebola approved
2020 – First vaccine for COVID-19
2023 – First respiratory syncytial virus vaccine
2023 – First vaccine for Chikungunya