Centers For Disease Control and Prevention Timeline - 1950s

1950s

• 1950 - Fifteen CDC staffers conducted the first investigation of an epidemic of polio in Paulding County, Ohio.
• 1951 - The Epidemic Intelligence Service was established to help protect against biological warfare and manmade epidemics.
• 1952 - Surgeon General Dr. Leonard A. Scheele reported that the Communicable Disease Center was ready to combat possible biological warfare.
• 1953 - CDC reported first case of rabies in a bat.
• 1954 - Alexander D. Langmuir, M.D., M.P.H., set up a leptospirosis laboratory in Jacksonville, Florida.
• 1955 - CDC established the Polio Surveillance Program.
• 1956 - Dr. William Cherry found the first practical use for the fluorescent technique, which was successful in identifying pathogens that might be used in biological warfare.
• 1957 - National guidelines for influenza vaccine were developed.
• 1958 - A CDC team traveled overseas, for the first time, to Southeast Asia to respond to an epidemic of cholera and smallpox.
• 1959 - Dr. Robert Kissling developed the fluorescent antibody test for rabies, first used in a field trial with 100 percent accuracy.