Measles is a viral illness that is currently in the news, yet most people know nothing about this highly contagious infectious disease.

More than nine out of 10 persons exposed to measles will fall ill if non-immune.

Measles leads to high fever, cough, ear infections, croup, and pneumonia with one of five persons requiring hospitalization. Rare complications include encephalitis (brain swelling) in one out of every 1,000 and death in one out of every 1,000.

After recovery from measles, many people will be more susceptible to other infections for up to a year because measles weakens the immune system.

The good news is that measles is preventable.

The Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine has kept us all safe and healthy for decades.

Vaccines protect infants, children, teens, and adults from 15 infections (that is a lot!), including measles tetanus, polio, and whooping cough.

By preventing measles and other infections, severe and deadly side effects, like brain damage, hearing loss, sterility, and death, disappear. The success of preventing all these horrible consequences is that our children (and adults) stay healthy, don’t require hospitalization(s), and do not suffer death from these diseases.

Most people have never seen or heard of a case of a child or adult with any of these infectious diseases. Why is that? It is because of the success of these vaccines.

There are several arguments I have heard about why parents do not want to vaccinate their children:

MYTH: There is no proven safety of vaccines.

FALSE. The safety of vaccines has been well studied and continues to be studied. Changes have been made to vaccines to make them safer over the years. Here are a few examples: the acellular pertussis vaccine replaced the whole cell vaccine, new rotavirus vaccines were developed to replace an older version, and the MMR vaccine has been replaced with more attenuated virus strains.

All these changes occurred because of ongoing diligence in studying vaccine safety and wanting to have fewer side effects. It is estimated that more than 575 million doses of MMR vaccine have been administered in the world; its safety track record is long and impressive!

MYTH: Infants and babies are too young to receive vaccines.

FALSE. Babies tolerate vaccines well, and they need to be protected because otherwise they are one of the most vulnerable populations to complications from these infections. There is an urgency to vaccine them to keep them healthy and protected at a young age.

MYTH: Vaccines have not been well studied.

FALSE. The current vaccine schedule has been rigorously studied. All vaccines have gone through clinical trials to determine their safety and how well they work. In addition, there are large studies that follow infants, children, teens, and adults after they get vaccinated to determine short- and long-term safety.

MYTH: Children receive too many shots and immunizations in the first five years of life.

FALSE. The number of shots given to children prevents 15 individual viral and bacterial diseases. Vaccines can be given as a combination vaccine, like the MMR vaccine and DaPT, which prevents Diphtheria, acellular Pertussis, and Tetanus.

To ensure response, many vaccines are given as a series like at two, four, and six months of age or 12-months and four years.

The number of shots or jabs adds up to 16-20 but is small in comparison to the testing a child would need if they developed measles, polio, or whooping cough.

MYTH: The amount of protein material in vaccines, known as antigens, is too many for infants and children.

FALSE. By age five, a child will have been exposed to 320 total antigens through vaccination. In comparison, all of us, including newborns, infants, and children, are exposed to thousands or millions of antigens daily through skin contact, ingestion, and inhalation. Our immune system is tough!

MYTH: Vaccines cause autism.

FALSE. Let’s set the record straight: NO! Many, many studies have compared children who have been vaccinated and those who have not been vaccinated and there is no difference in the rates of autism. These studies were done with rigor and were unbiased (not done by the pharmaceutical companies who manufacture vaccines).

Many may have heard of Andrew Wakefield, an adult doctor in England who made up data to say that children had autism because of the MMR vaccine. He wanted people to buy his measles vaccine, and he was receiving payment from lawyers who wanted proof that vaccines harmed children. His paper was proven to be made up and false, it was retracted from The Lancet medical journal, he was disbarred in England, and he lost his medical license.

His false claims have put millions of children and adults at risk for severe disease and damage because parents still think that his data was real. It was all made up!

MYTH: Natural immunity is better than vaccine immunity.

FALSE. We are healthy because we do NOT get measles, chicken pox, polio, or any of the other 12 infectious diseases.

It is true that many people, including myself, survived some of these infections as children. I am here because I did not die of measles, nor develop brain damage from measles. Many of my school classmates missed weeks of school when they were sick with measles.

I know a local family in West Virginia who lives with their 85-year-old uncle who suffered brain damage from measles as a child. He was never able to live on his own, work, or go to school. His entire life was changed when he had measles as a five-year-old.

I never had polio myself, thankfully, because I received the polio vaccine. I work with a physician who suffers from weakening in his legs, a result of post-polio syndrome. He had polio as a child and now, as he ages, his leg muscles continue to weaken and atrophy.

We are healthier because of the protection from vaccines; it is lifelong and keeps us all healthy, alive, and thriving.

I really think that we all want the same thing: healthy children, healthy teenagers, and healthy adults.

It is therefore important for me to advocate for all members of our community to be vaccinated.

I have a new grandniece. Her parents and family should not have to fear that their child can get measles from living in her community or attending school.

I am glad that our medical providers have never seen or diagnosed a case of measles or paralytic polio. I do remember these diseases, and I’m very glad they have faded away. Let’s keep it that way.

Vaccines are safe! Vaccines protect! Vaccines save lives!