Let's Eliminate Measles. Again.

Summer in the 1940s and ‘50s was marked by fear. Fear of polio. Parents kept their children inside. Public events were cancelled. Swimming pools, summer camps and movie theaters closed.

In 1952, polio hit its peak. More than 57,000 cases were reported throughout the U.S., resulting in 3,145 deaths. Another 21,000 children were left with mild to disabling paralysis.

Then, in 1955, everything began to change, with a massive public health effort to administer Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine to children across America. By 1979, the U.S. was polio-free. And now, polio is on the verge of being eliminated from the world completely.

All because of a vaccine.

Let’s hope we never return to those days when images of iron lungs and leg braces were commonplace. As measles is proving, though, a disease can return when vaccination rates lag.

In 2000, measles, like polio, was declared eliminated from the United States. Now, it’s back, showing its first signs of resurgence in 2008 and reaching a peak of 644 cases last year. Currently, less than two months into 2015, the number of measles cases is 121, as part of an outbreak spreading across 17 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Why? Misinformation.

A wholly debunked 1998 study convinced a segment of parents that vaccines are harmful. That is simply not true. There is absolutely no correlation between vaccination and autism.

Parents need to understand that when they don’t vaccinate their children, they have exposed them to a serious, highly communicable disease – all in an effort to protect them from imaginary dangers.

Measles is not a benign disease. When a disease is eliminated, it’s easy to forget how serious it really was. When measles was still endemic to the United States, 3 million to 4 million people contracted measles annually, according to the CDC. Of those, 400 to 500 died, 48,000 were hospitalized, and 4,000 developed measles-associated encephalitis (brain swelling). Then, in 1963, the U.S. measles vaccination program began. By 2000, measles was eliminated.

Now, we need to eliminate it again. To do that, children must be vaccinated. Choosing to forgo vaccinations is not just a personal decision; it’s a decision that affects all of society.

Vaccinations are only effective when they induce “herd immunity.” The fewer who are vaccinated, the greater the risk to everyone, especially pregnant women, those with compromised immune systems (such as those being treated for cancer), and those who are too young to be immunized.

The fear of imagined side effects should not give way to renewed fears of once-eliminated diseases.