New York City Health Department Celebrates 220 Years of Public Health Victories

New York City Health Department Celebrates 220 Years of Public Health Victories

From Cholera to COVID-19, the Health Department Has Significantly Improved New Yorkers' Health and Well-Being

September 16, 2025 - Today, the New York City Health Department celebrates its 220th birthday. For over two centuries, the Health Department has protected New Yorkers from deadly diseases, ensured clean drinking water, provided access to life-saving vaccines, tracked birth and death statistics, and vastly reduced infant mortality, among many other accomplishments.

"For the past 220 years, the New York City Health Department's work has significantly improved the health and extended the lives of New Yorkers and, in doing so, changed the course of our country's history," said Acting Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Morse. "That said, we are struggling through a deadly and concerted attack on the integrity of public health, and continue to face vast health inequities in race, class, and geography. We remain committed to our mission to protect and promote New Yorkers' health and to drive our resources to those who need them most-especially in the absence of federal leadership."

The oldest and largest municipal public health agency in the nation, the Health Department has paved the way for New Yorkers to lead significantly longer and healthier lives. Notable events in Health Department history include:

• 1805: In response to repeated yellow fever epidemics, the Common Council (the predecessor to today's NYC Council) appointed a New York City Board of Health, consisting of three health commissioners.
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• 1866: To address ongoing cholera outbreaks, the New York State legislature created the Metropolitan Board of Health, the first municipal public health authority in the U.S.
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• 1870: New York State created the Department of Health for the City of New York, with a new Board of Health operating as its overseeing body.
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• 1892: The Health Department opened the Bacteriological Laboratory (now known as the Public Health Lab) to diagnose suspected cases of cholera, becoming the first municipal laboratory in the world to routinely diagnose diseases.
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• 1904: New York City opened its first tuberculosis clinic. Today, the Health Department is the main clinical provider for TB in the city.
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• 1908-1914: The rate of death for children under 1 year of age dropped more than 40 percent thanks to Health Department efforts such as sending doctors into schools to inspect for life-threatening diseases including cholera, whooping cough, and measles.
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• 1921: The first District Health Center (later renamed "Action Centers"), designed to coordinate voluntary and municipal health and welfare work to eliminate gaps in services, opened in Harlem.
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• 1947: In one of the city's most historic public health campaigns, 6.3 million New Yorkers were vaccinated against smallpox in a single month.
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• 1956: Elvis Presley was photographed receiving a polio vaccine from Health Commissioner Leona Baumgartner - the agency's first woman commissioner - and Assistant Commissioner Harold Fuerst, as part of the city's robust anti-polio campaign. By 1963, New York was virtually polio-free.
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• 1960: NYC banned interior lead-based paint. Today, the number of children with elevated blood lead levels has decreased by nearly 90 percent.
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• 1965: Based on public health recommendations, NYC fluoridated the city's drinking water to better address oral health across the city.
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• 1976: NYC began requiring window guard installation for apartments with children, a policy that has reduced deaths from window falls by more than 98 percent.
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• 1985: The Health Department began offering free anonymous HIV testing and continued to dedicate significant resources for LGBTQ+ care at a time when many political and medical systems abandoned queer communities.
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• 1994: The Health Department secured $100 million in federal funding enabling patients to access potent antiretroviral therapies, leading to a significant downward trend in the city's HIV/AIDS deaths.
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• 2001: The World Trade Center Health Registry launched to track the long-term health impacts associated with 9/11.
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• 2002: NYC implemented a plan that discouraged smoking through smoke-free air laws and increased sales tax on cigarettes. The following year, restaurants and bars became smoke-free. By 2023, the adult smoking rate in NYC had decreased by nearly two-thirds.
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• 2005: NYC established the Rat Academy, open to anyone who wants to learn how to control the rat population in their neighborhood.
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• 2007: The nation's first municipally branded condom, the "NYC Condom," was created and distributed free of charge to New Yorkers.
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• 2010: After decades of regulating NYC restaurants, the Health Department introduced its letter grading system to enable diners to make informed decisions about where to eat out and encourage restaurants to earn an "A" by meeting the highest food safety standards.
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• 2016: The Health Department launched Race to Justice, the agency's first internal reform effort to help our staff learn what they can do to better address racial health gaps and improve health outcomes for all New Yorkers.
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• 2020: A nurse in Queens received the first COVID-19 vaccine administered in the U.S., marking the start of NYC's historic vaccination campaign. Since then, COVID-19 deaths have dropped by 96 percent.
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• 2021: NYC Board of Health declared racism a public health crisis.
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• 2023: The HealthyNYC campaign launched, with the aim of increasing New Yorkers' life expectancy to at least 83 years by 2030, while reducing health inequities experienced by lower income, Black, and Latino New Yorkers.
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• 2025: To address the leading cause of preventable death for New Yorkers - chronic disease such as heart disease, diabetes, and screenable cancers - the Health Department released "Addressing Unacceptable Inequities: A Chronic Disease Strategy for New York City."

Now in its third century, the Health Department continues to prevent disease and injuries and improve the health and safety of all New Yorkers. At a time when drastic federal funding cuts are eroding the foundations of the national public health system, local support by the Health Department is as vital as ever.

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