Immunization partners (WHO, UNICEF, CDC) established the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) that includes a goal for measles and rubella elimination in 5 of the 6 regions of the world by 2020.

The MI became the Measles & Rubella Partnership (M&RP), and published the Measles & Rubella Strategic Plan, 2012-2020, expanding the vision to include a world without measles OR rubella.

The last endemic measles case occurred in the Region of the Americas.

The American Red Cross, CDC, UNF, UNICEF and WHO agree to be the founding partners of the Measles Initiative (MI) with a vision of a world without measles

Continuous transmission of measles was halted in the United States. However, U.S. residents remained at risk for infection from imported cases.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) set goal for measles elimination in the Region of the Americas.

With the Measles Elimination Program having set a date to eliminate the disease from the United States by October 1, 1982, current statistics seemed promising. In April of 1981, the number of reported measles cases was down an “unprecedented” 80% from the previous year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that only 778 cases were reported in the first 14 weeks of 1981, while 3,897 had been reported during the same period the previous year. Unfortunately, the disease would prove more difficult to conquer than researchers had hoped, and the goal of U.S. measles eradication by 1982 would not be met.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared a goal of eliminating measles from the United States by 1982. Although this goal would not be met, widespread vaccination drastically reduced the incidence of the disease, and it would be declared eliminated in the country by 2000.

The U.S. government licensed Merck’s measles, mumps, and rubella combination vaccine (M-M-R). In an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers reported that the vaccine induced immunity to measles in 96% of vaccinated children; to mumps in 95%; and to rubella in 94%. Additionally, initial tests in 1968 had already shown that adverse reactions from the MMR vaccine were no greater than from any of the single vaccines.

Maurice Hilleman, working at Merck, modified a rubella vaccine virus from Paul Parkman and Harry Meyer, scientists at the Division of Biologics Standards. The vaccine entered commercial use in 1969-1970. A year later, in 1971, the MMR vaccine was licensed, and protection against measles, mumps and rubella was provided at the same time, via one shot.

After demonstrating its safety and efficacy, first in monkeys and then humans, John Enders and colleagues declared their measles vaccine capable of preventing infection. Their Edmonston-B strain of measles virus was transformed into a vaccine licensed in the United States in 1963, and nearly 19 million doses would be administered over the next 12 years.

Thomas Peebles, MD, working in a laboratory at Boston Children’s Hospital, was asked by lab director John Enders to isolate the virus responsible for measles. Peebles learned of an outbreak at a private school outside of Boston and, after getting permission from the principal, collected blood samples from the sick students, telling each boy: “Young man, you are standing on the frontiers of science.” Peebles attempted for weeks to obtain the virus, and on February 8, succeeded. He collected blood containing the virus from 13-year-old student David Edmonston. Eventually, the collected measles virus would be isolated and used to create a series of vaccines.

Japanese scientists S. Tasaka and Y. Hiro used throat washings from children sick with rubella to transmit the disease to healthy children. The causative agent of the disease, however, remained unidentified.

Measles killed nearly 12,000 people in the United States in 1916, 75% of them younger than five years old. Estimates of the percentage of measles patients who suffer complications from the disease have ranged from 15% to as high as 30%. Serious complications include pneumonia, encephalitis, and corneal ulceration.

French researchers Charles Nicolle, MD, and Ernest Conseil, MD, showed that measles patients have specific protective antibodies in their blood. The researchers then demonstrated that serum from measles patients could be used to protect against the disease.

The name “Rubella,” meaning “little red,” was first used to describe an outbreak at a boys’ school in India. Later, this would be referenced by English surgeon Henry Veale in the Edinburgh Medical Journal (Volume 12, 1866) documenting the history of an epidemic of “Rötheln.” Veale proposed that the name Rubella replace “Rötheln,” citing the need for a name that was easy to write and pronounce.

Scottish physician Francis Home, MD, transmitted measles from infected patients to healthy individuals via blood, demonstrating that the disease was caused by an infectious agent