NHS 60 - Health protection timeline
| 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s |
1940s
1948: The National Health Service is established on 5 July. For the first time hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and dentists provide services that are free for all at the point of delivery.
1948: Andrew J. Moyer is granted a patent to mass produce penicillin, the antibiotic that was discovered and developed in 1928 by Alexander Fleming. There is already evidence that some bugs are developing a resistance to penicillin, most notably staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium that can live harmlessly on the body, but can cause disease, particularly if there is an opportunity for the bacteria to enter the body.
1948: The results of a controlled UK-wide trial of the TB drug streptomycin are published in October. Within a few years streptomycin will be widely adopted as the treatment of choice against pulmonary TB.
1950s
1951: Richard Doll and Austin Bradford Hill publish a paper on a survey they carried out that links smoking and lung cancer for the first time.
1950: 50,000 cases of TB are recorded in the UK.
1953: BCG vaccination is introduced in secondary schools in the UK. This, combined with the mass X-ray programmes of the 1950s and 1960s, dramatically reduces the number of recorded cases, but TB doesn't disappear entirely.
Click here for more info on TB.
Content provider: CDC/Charles Farmer
1954: Doll and Hill establish the link between smoking and lung cancer beyond doubt and publish the evidence. The government accepts their research findings.
1956: Clean Air Act (See also 1968 and 1993) introduces smokeless zones and regulates stack heights for industries that produce smoke pollution.
1956: Britain's first industrial-scale nuclear power station opens in Calder Hall at Windscale, near Sellafield in West Cumbria.
1957: An accident occurs at the nuclear reactor at Windscale. A report of the Inquiry into the accident is published but some data on the releases are omitted for security reasons. The full facts are not known for 30 years.
1957: Asian flu sweeps the world, causing an estimated two million excess deaths.
1960s
1961: A combined Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis vaccine is introduced. Up to 70,000 cases of diphtheria were recorded in the UK in the 1950s, leading to 5,000 deaths.
For more information on diphtheria click here.
1962: A live attenuated polio vaccine introduced. Prior to the introduction of a vaccine, epidemic years would see as many as 8,000 cases of polio in the UK. Today there are no cases of paralysis from polio in this country.
1963: First Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is signed, banning tests in the atmosphere, in space and under water.
1968: The first measles vaccine is introduced to the childhood immunisation programme. 236,154 measles cases were notified that year and 51 children died from the disease.
Content provider: CDC
1968: Another flu pandemic, this time Hong Kong flu. Excess deaths are estimated at one million globally.
1968: Clean Air Act (See 1993)
1970s
1970s: Smoke detectors are gradually introduced to domestic premises over the decade, saving many lives.
1976: Legionnaires' disease, a form of bacterial pneumonia, is recognised for the first time following an outbreak in Philadelphia.
Click here for more info on Legionnaires' disease
© Health Protection Agency and Science Photo Library
1979: Serious nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in the USA. Fortunately its secure containment prevents any significant releases of radioactive material into the environment.
1979: A Commission of Eminent Scientists declares that smallpox has been eradicated from the world.
Content provider: CDC/ World Health Organization; Stanley O. Foster M.D., M.P.H.
1980s
1980: The World Health Organization endorses the declaration on smallpox eradication on 8 May. It is estimated that smallpox caused 300-500 million deaths in the 20th century. As recently as 1967, 15 million cases were recorded worldwide and two million people died from the disease.
1981: The first case of AIDS is reported in the UK.
1982: Hepatitis B vaccine is introduced.
Click here for more info on Hepatitis B
Click here to find out about CCDCs and other local Health Protection services
1985: HIV testing is introduced in Genitourinary Medicine (GUM) clinics for the first time.
Click here for more information on HIV
1985: BSE (bovine, spongiform encephalitis) first identified in UK cattle.
1986: The world's worst nuclear power accident occurs at Chernobyl in the Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. Radiation monitoring in the UK shows elevated levels due to fallout from the accident.
Click here to find out more about the Agency’s work on Radiation
1987: 5,745 TB cases recorded in the UK, an all-time low. Since then, instances of the disease have slowly but steadily increased to the present level of 8,000 cases a year. TB is usually treatable with antibiotics.
1988: MMR, the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is introduced. Before the introduction of MMR vaccine, around 1200 people were admitted to hospital each year with mumps, meningitis or encephalitis and an average of 50 babies were born with severe rubella damage.
1989: Hepatitis C infection is identified for the first time.
Information about Hepatitis C can be found by clicking here
1990s
1993: Clean Air Act of 1993 consolidates previous Clean Air Acts of 1956 and 1968. It prohibits the emission of dark smoke from chimneys, decrees that new furnaces "shall be so far as is practicable smokeless" and creates smoke-control areas.
1997: The first proven links are made between BSE in cattle and new variant CJD (vCJD) in humans.
1997: Combined Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis (DTP)-Hib vaccine is introduced. Before the introduction of haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccination, one in every 600 children developed Hib meningitis or other serious forms of disease before their fifth birthday. Today there are only a handful of cases in young children. Tetanus has all but disappeared in UK children.
1998: Uptake of MMR vaccination (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) is affected by reports of 'research' linking the vaccine with autism. Since then, successive studies have proved that MMR is safe and effective and parental confidence in the vaccine is recovering.
To find out more about the MMR click here
1999: Tobacco advertising is banned in shops and newsagents.
1999: In an initiative to protect unborn babies from infection, HIV testing is offered for the first time to pregnant women as part of their routine antenatal care.
2000s
2000: Leaded petrol banned in the UK, except for use in classic cars.
2000: The Stewart Report on Mobile Phones and Health recommends a precautionary approach to new technology that has become widely used by the public, including children.
To read the Stewart Report, report click here
2002: First outbreaks of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) occur in Southeast Asia and Canada.
2003: Legislation is introduced to end tobacco sponsorship of sports.
2003: The Health Protection Agency (HPA) is set up in April by bringing together the former Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS), the national Chemical Hazards and Poisons Division (ChaPD), the microbiological research establishment at Porton Down in Wiltshire and Consultants in Communicable Disease Control and Health Protection Nurses who were formerly employed by Health Authorities in the regions.
2005: The Health Protection Agency is established as a non-departmental public body "to protect the community (or any part of the community) against infectious diseases and other dangers to health" (HPA Act 2004). The National Radiological Protection Board is assimilated and becomes the Agency's Radiation Protection Division.
Click here to find out more about the work at our centres and local services in your area
2005: The biggest explosion and fire in Europe since World War 2 occurs at the Buncefield oil depot in Hertfordshire. The Health Protection Agency carries out environmental sampling and advises on health precautions, including advice on the potential impact of materials used to extinguish the fire.
Click here to read the report on the Buncefield fire
Click here to read the report on the Buncefield fire
© Chiltern Air Support Unit
2005: The BCG immunisation programme is refined to meet modern needs. The vaccine is now given routinely to babies in areas with TB rates of 40 cases per 100,000 of population or above and to babies who are at greater risk of coming into contact with a TB patient due to family or personal circumstances.2006: The Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) is introduced into the childhood immunisation programme in September, preventing an estimated 470 cases of serious illness or death in young children since then.
2006: Alexander Litvinenko dies from radiation poisoning following ingestion of Polonium 210 in November. The Health Protection Agency monitors his family, friends, close associates, hospital staff who treated him and staff in the various hotels, offices and restaurants that he and his associates visited. Environmental checks at various locations provide evidence for HPA staff to give public reassure on the wider risks to health.
Click here for more information about Polonium 210
© Health Protection Agency
2007: Legislation to ban smoking in workplaces and public premises comes in to effect.
2007: Britain's first H5N1 outbreak in bird flocks occurs at a poultry processing plant in Suffolk. The HPA creates the capability to test suspected H5N1 specimens at laboratories across England, ensuring a rapid response if a human should be suspected of acquiring H5N1 infection.
Click here for more information on the different types of flu
2007: Summer floods devastate homes and businesses across Yorkshire, Humber and south west England. The HPA provides expert advice on protection from chemical hazards and infectious disease.
Click here for frequently asked questions during flooding
© Health Protection Agency
2008: HPA and NHS partners prepare for the launch of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination programme, due to be launched in secondary schools in September. It will protect girls from a virus that causes cervical cancer.
Click here to find out more about HPV and the immunisation programme
2008: The HPA is working with partners on the development of a Meningococcal B vaccine, which should be available within the foreseeable future.
© Health Protection Agency
Last reviewed: 15 July 2008