In the face of an outbreak of measles cases that has affected over 100 people across the country, President Barack Obama urged parents to have their children vaccinated.
Measles was eradicated in the United States in 2000, a medical feat that is now being undermined by a growing population of people who are unvaccinated, threatening to turn the disease endemic.
In California alone, 91 cases of measles have been reported, and at least 58 of those have been linked epidemiologically to a cluster of cases that started in December in Disneyland. Health officials suspect that the outbreak began when an infected person traveled into the country, bringing with them the disease from overseas, and went to Disneyland anywhere from Dec. 15 to Dec. 20.
No deaths have been reported yet in association with the outbreak, but it is feared that 2015 is well on track to be worse than last year in terms of measles cases. In 2014, 644 cases of the disease were recorded across 27 states, the worst in the country in the last 20 years.
The current measles outbreak has sparked anew the debate on whether or not children should be vaccinated, with some parents joining the anti-vaccination movement due to beliefs that vaccines cause autism, an issue that has been debunked.
It's understandable for parents to have concerns about how medications can affect their children, but the president has clarified that the science proving the safety and efficacy of vaccines is indisputable.
"We've looked at this again and again. There is every reason to get vaccinated, but there aren't reasons to not," he said.
Measles is highly preventable in those who have been given the vaccine against the disease. Out of those who remain unvaccinated, however, 90 percent will get sick when exposed to the measles virus. It's easy to catch the disease because the virus is airborne. It also has the ability to hang around in a room even after an infected person has been gone for a couple of hours.
Aside from being a disease itself, measles may also lead to complications such as pneumonia, deafness or lifelong brain damage in children.
Adults who are not sure if they were given shots as children or if they have acquired the disease can get vaccinated because there is no harm in being inoculated twice against measles.
Measles is still common around the world, with an estimated 20 million people getting sick from the disease every year. In 2013, the CDC says, about 145,700 people died of measles across the world.
