The Global Burden of Infectious Disease

Infectious diseases are among the leading causes of mortality worldwide. Approximately 2.5 million deaths occur every year as a result of vaccine-preventable diseases (Figure 1, Table 1). An almost equal number of deaths occur every year as a result of diseases for which the use of already developed vaccines are not yet available on a global scale such as for the rotavirus, meningitis AC, and pneumococcal vaccines (Table 1). Preventable diseases are responsible for 14% of the global mortality for children under 5 years old, or 1.5 million deaths each year. (WHO, 2009)

Figure 1: Burden of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (WHO 2013)

Table 1: Annual estimated deaths in 2010 from vaccine-preventable diseases (CHOP, 2013)

Disease	Worldwide Cases/Year	Worldwide Deaths/Year	U.S. Cases/Year	U.S. Deaths/Year
Diphtheria	50,000	5,000	< 5	< 1
Hepatitis B	2 billion	600,000	38,000	3,000
Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)	8 million	199,000	<25	< 5
Influenza	3-5 million severe cases	250,000 - 500,000	30 million - 60 million	Up to 40,000
Meningococcus	500,000	50,000	2,500	300
Measles	344,000	114,000	200	<2
Mumps	719,000	Unavailable	<500	0
Pertussis	30-50 million	300,000	19,000 reported cases	15-20
Pneumococcus	14.5 million	476,000	40,000	4,000
Polio	700	Unavailable	0	0
Rotavirus	138 million	453,000	2.7 million	20-60
Rubella	113,000	Unavailable	≤10	Unavailable
Tetanus	500,000-1 million	61,000	<40	3-4
Tuberculosis	9 million	1.5 million	11,000	500
Varicella (Chickenpox)	80-90 million	Unavailable	408,500	< 10
Yellow Fever	200,000	30,000	0	0
*Data represented in this table was compiled from multiple sources and in most cases rounded to the nearest thousand. The information presented represents the most recent data available. If you know of updates, please contact us by e-mailing contactPACK@email.chop.edu. Be sure to include the source of your information.