Physician Andrew Wakefield reported in 1998 that the measles vaccine leads to autism. Even though his research was discredited, the damage was done and there came a fall in measles vaccinations due to which the prevalence of measles increased.

In the first half of 2018, there was a major increase in the prevalence of measles in Europe, where 41000 people were affected followed by 37 deaths. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that more than 100 people were affected with measles in Columbia in the USA along with 21 other states.

Due to this drastic rise, parents are becoming more concerned about the risks this poses to their school going children. Dr. Michael Brady, an infectious disease expert from Nationwide Children’s Hospital claims that the MMR vaccine will effectively prevent another outbreak. By reducing the cost, it is mandatory to enforce vaccination.

Dr. Michael Brady said, “One of the issues that’s problematic is that we have large numbers of children in the United States who are immunocompromised for a number of different reasons. They’re getting treated for their cancer. They have an HIV infection or they’re born with a problem in their immune system. These children can’t receive the vaccine, and so if they’re exposed to a child who has measles, they can get very, very severe disease and, not infrequently, die.”