History of Public Health Timeline

Edward Jenner created the world’s first vaccine against smallpox. Benjamin Waterhouse subsequently introduced smallpox vaccination in the United States, extending one of the earliest successful preventive interventions.

Image source: Smallpox vaccine

John Snow identified a polluted public water well as the source of a cholera outbreak in London. The investigation is regarded as a founding achievement of modern epidemiology and demonstrated the value of mapping disease against environmental exposures.

Image source: John Snow

In 1866, New York City founded the first United States public health organization based on a state health department and local boards of health. It provided an early institutional model for American public health administration.

Image source: New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Led by Massachusetts, American states developed public health programs during the late nineteenth century. These programs expanded governmental responsibility for sanitation, disease control, and population health.

The pioneering bacteriological work of Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch led to methods for isolating disease-causing bacteria and developing vaccines. Koch’s discoveries provided direct evidence that germs could cause specific diseases, creating a scientific basis for public health.

Image source: Germ theory of disease

A $25,000 donation from businessman Samuel Zemurray established the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University in 1912. The school conferred its first doctor of public health degree in 1914.

Charles-Edward Amory Winslow founded the Yale School of Public Health in 1915. Its creation formed part of the expansion of specialized institutions for public health research and training.

Image source: Yale School of Public Health

The Welch–Rose Report of 1915 became a basis for the institutional development of public health education in the United States. It contributed to the establishment of schools of public health supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.

The Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health was founded in 1916. It became an independent, degree-granting institution for public health research and training and grew into the largest public health training facility in the United States.

By 1922, schools of public health had been established at Columbia and Harvard on the Johns Hopkins model. By 1999, the United States had 29 schools enrolling around 15,000 students.

Nora Wattie led the development of public health services, sanitation, and education aimed at improving women’s and children’s health in Glasgow’s poorest slums. She received the OBE for this work.

As the epidemiological transition progressed and infectious diseases became less prevalent during the twentieth century, public health placed increasing emphasis on chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease.

Jonas Salk developed one of the first polio vaccines and campaigned vigorously for mandatory vaccination. His work contributed to the expansion of mass immunization against a major infectious disease.

Image source: Jonas Salk

Following Bolivia’s 1952 revolution, the country experienced a similar push toward expanded public health provision and improved health conditions for its population.

Image source: Health in Bolivia

Since the 1959 Cuban Revolution, the Cuban government has devoted extensive resources to improving health conditions for the entire population through universal access to health care.

Ruth Huenemann became a pioneer in the study of childhood obesity during the 1960s. She examined the diet and exercise habits of Berkeley teenagers, helping establish obesity as a public health subject.

Image source: Ruth Huenemann

Total health aid from developed countries rose from $5.5 billion in 1990 to $26.87 billion in 2010. Wealthy countries continued donating billions of dollars annually with the goal of improving population health.

Image source: Global health

Taiwan introduced its National Health Insurance system in 1995. The system provides nearly universal coverage, reaching an estimated 99.9 percent of residents, and anchors the island’s public health infrastructure.

Image source: Healthcare in Taiwan

HIV received an increase of more than $6 billion in funding between 2000 and 2010. This rise was more than twice the increase seen in any other health sector during those years.

Image source: HIV/AIDS

Taiwan developed strong public health institutions, including the Central Epidemic Command Center, after the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak. The infrastructure supported coordinated responses to subsequent infectious disease threats.

Spending supporting public health in the United States peaked in 2002 and declined during the following decade. Cuts made during the Great Recession of 2007–2008 were not restored, and by 2018 about 3 percent of government health spending went to public health and prevention.

Image source: United States Public Health Service

In 2009, health aid from the OECD amounted to $12.47 billion, representing 11.4 percent of its total bilateral aid. The figure illustrates the growing role of international assistance in public health.

Image source: OECD

In 2009, multilateral donors spent 15.3 percent of their total aid on improving public health. This spending supported international efforts to strengthen health systems and address population-level disease.

A June 2010 Lancet editorial described the epidemic scale of largely preventable type 2 diabetes as a public health humiliation. The disease’s risk is closely linked to the growing problem of obesity.

Image source: Type 2 diabetes

A 2014–2016 study estimated that one billion dollars in health aid was associated with 364,000 fewer deaths among children aged zero to five in 2011. The study also noted possible confounding because aid may have been directed to countries already improving.

Antibiotic resistance, also known as drug resistance, was the theme of World Health Day 2011. The focus highlighted the growing threat posed by microbes that no longer respond effectively to medicines.

Image source: World Health Day

In September 2011, the United Nations hosted its first General Assembly Special Summit on noncommunicable diseases. The meeting demonstrated a growing international focus on chronic conditions and their prevention.

A 2012 panel of the US Institute of Medicine warned that the United States spent disproportionately more on clinical care than on public health. It argued that population-based activities offered efficient and effective approaches to improving national health.

The United Nations developed the Sustainable Development Goals to address current and future global health challenges, with completion targeted for 2030. The goals provide an international framework for improving health and development.

Image source: Sustainable Development Goals

WHO estimates highlighted that approximately 1.9 billion adults worldwide were overweight in 2014, along with 41 million children under five. The figures emphasized the global scale of overweight and obesity as public health concerns.

Image source: Obesity

Taiwan was recognized in 2020 as one of the world’s most effective pandemic responses, with minimal lockdowns and exceptionally low infection and death rates according to assessments by Wired, Time, the Commonwealth Fund, and others.

Image source: COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan

Taiwan’s continuing public health priorities included vaccine campaigns, with first-dose COVID-19 coverage exceeding 90 percent by 2022. The country also maintained immunization against infectious diseases and chronic disease management programs.

Taiwan faces a major demographic challenge as its population ages. Projections indicate that nearly 37 percent of the population could be over 65 by 2050, increasing pressure on public health and care systems.