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 (serum antitoxin) 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 (tetanus toxoid, TT) by Gaston Ramon, C. Zoeller and P. Descombey 1926 – First vaccine for pertussis (whooping cough) 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 Anatolii 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 (Streptococcus pneumoniae) 1978 – First vaccine for meningitis (Neisseria meningitidis) 1980 – Smallpox declared eradicated worldwide due to vaccination efforts 1981 – First vaccine for hepatitis B (first vaccine to target a cause of cancer) 1984 – First vaccine for chicken pox 1985 – First vaccine for Haemophilus influenzae type b (HiB) 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. (PCV7 or Prevnar) 2003 – First nasal influenza vaccine approved in U.S. (FluMist) 2003 – First vaccine for Argentine hemorrhagic fever. 2006 – First vaccine for human papillomavirus (which is a cause of cervical cancer) 2006 – First herpes zoster vaccine for shingles 2011 – First vaccine for non-small-cell lung carcinoma (comprises 85% of lung cancer cases) 2012 – First vaccine for hepatitis E 2012 – First quadrivalent (4-strain) 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
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