[6] The journal was established in July 1878 as the Bulletins of the Public Health under the National Quarantine Act of April 29, 1878, issued by the Supervising Surgeon-General at the time, John Maynard Woodworth.

[7][8] This act requested weekly reports of epidemic disease infections to be forwarded to Washington by the American consulates abroad.

[9] Publication was suspended after 46 issues on May 24, 1879 as a byproduct of the creation of the National Board of Health and its takeover of the Quarantine Act responsibilities.

The responsibility for the Quarantine Act returned to the Surgeon General in 1883, and in 1887 the journal resumed publication as the Weekly Abstract of Sanitary Reports.

[2][10] PHR was the primary source of US epidemiological data during the first part of the 20th century and was the precursor to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

[12] From 1878-2021, PHR published 349 articles on emerging viral epidemics covering such diseases as influenza, dengue, Zika, Ebola, and COVID-19.