In 1982, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported an all-time low of measles cases, a 99% drop from the pre-vaccine era. A provisional total of 1,697 cases was reported, for a record low incidence rate of 0.7 cases per 100,000 population of all ages.

This is a 99.7% reduction from the 1950-1962 prevaccine era when an annual average of 525,730 cases was reported (315.2 cases/100,000), and a 45.7% reduction from the 3,124 cases in 1981, the previous year of record low incidence (1.4 cases/100,000).

Most reporting areas reported very few or no measles cases. Twenty-two states reported no indigenous cases all year, including 15 states that reported no cases–indigenous or imported. Ninety-four percent (2,944) of the nation’s 3,138 counties reported no measles cases during the entire year, and only 0.7% (22) of the counties reported measles during 5 or more weeks. Those 22 counties contained 14.4% of the U.S. population.

The 1,697 measles cases, 1,072 (63.2%) occurred in 14 separate chains of transmission, each consisting of from two to 16 generations of infection, and 625 (36.8%) occurred sporadically. Sources were identified for 11 of the 14 chains of transmission. Of these, eight were international importations, two were out-of-state importations, and one was an indigenous case in a child with a medical exemption to vaccination. Reported by Division of Immunization, Center for Prevention Services, CDC.