Which Diseases are Vaccine Preventable?

In the United States, children routinely get 13 vaccines that protect them against 16 vaccine preventable diseases.

How many diseases are vaccine preventable though?

Vaccine Preventable Diseases

A lot more than just sixteen!

Believe it or not, there are many more vaccine preventable diseases that we are never routinely vaccinated against.

This includes military vaccines, travel vaccines, and vaccines that are only used in certain high risk situations.

These vaccine preventable diseases (in the United States, children and teens are routinely protected against the diseases highlighted in bold) include:

1. adenovirus – a military vaccine
2. anthrax – vaccine only given if high risk, a military vaccine
3. chicken pox – (Varivax, MMRV)
4. cholera – vaccine only given if high risk, as a travel vaccine
5. dengue – vaccine only given if high risk, as a travel vaccine
6. diphtheria – (DTaP/Tdap)
7. hepatitis A – (HepA)
8. hepatitis B – (HepB)
9. hepatitis E – vaccine not available in the United States
10. HPV – (Gardasil)
11. Haemophilus influenzae type b – (Hib)
12. influenza
13. Japanese encephalitis
14. measles – (MMR, MMRV)
15. meningococcal disease – (MCV4 and MenB and MenC)
16. mumps
17. pertussis – (DTaP/Tdap)
18. pneumococcal disease – (Prevnar13 and PneumoVax23)
19. polio – (bOPV and IPV)
20. Q-fever – vaccine not available in the United States
21. rabies – vaccine only given if high risk
22. rotavirus – (RV1, RV5)
23. rubella – (MMR, MMRV)
24. SARS-CoV-2
25. shingles – vaccine only given to seniors
26. smallpox – eradicated, but still given if high risk, a military vaccine
27. tetanus – (DTaP/Tdap)
28. tick-borne encephalitis – vaccine not available in the United States
29. tuberculosis – (BCG) – vaccine only given if high risk
30. typhoid fever – vaccine only given if high risk, as a travel vaccine
31. yellow fever – vaccine only given if high risk, as a travel vaccine

Discontinued vaccines also once protected people against Rocky mountain spotted fever, plague, and typhus.

These diseases can be contrasted with infectious diseases for which no vaccines yet exist, like RSV, malaria, norovirus, and HIV, etc., although vaccines are in the pipeline for many of these diseases too.

What To Know About Vaccine Preventable Diseases

Available vaccines are helping to eliminate or control a number of life-threatening vaccine preventable diseases, like polio, measles, and diphtheria.

More About Available Vaccines

• Vaccine Schedules from the 1940s to 2019
• Why Do We Only Worry About Measles?
• Did Better Hygiene and Sanitation Get Rid of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases?
• How Many People Die from Vaccine Preventable Diseases These Days?
• Pediatricians as Vaccine Pushers
• FDA – Vaccines Licensed for Use in the United States
• FDA – List of Vaccines Used in United States
• WHO – Vaccines List
• Vaccination for Rare Diseases

Last Updated on April 6, 2024