By Annette Pinder

A recent New York Times article highlighted six diseases that have been mostly eradicated due to vaccines. Emily Baumgaertner, a national health reporter for The Times says most young people aren’t familiar with these diseases, and are choosing to not vaccinate their children. However, skipping these vaccines has caused these diseases to circulate again, and health officials fear that the results may prove disastrous.

  1. Measles. Measles is so contagious that 9 out of 10 people in the same room as an infected person will show symptoms after 2 hours. Symptoms include a high fever, coughing, conjunctivitis, and rashes. Measles can cause pneumonia or encephalitis. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are about 97% effective in preventing measles. Declared eliminated in 2000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says 280,000 kindergartners are currently unprotected, and 16 measles outbreaks occurred in 2024.
  2. Diptheria. Diptheria comes from a strain of bacterium in respiratory droplets that kill healthy tissues, causing difficulty breathing and swallowing. Diptheria can damage the cardiac and nervous systems of small children, resulting in heart failure or paralysis. Multiple doses of the DTaP vaccine have reduced cases from more than 100,000 per year in the 1920s, to less than one.
  3. Tetanus. Observing a person with a tetanus infection is scary as it causes clenched fists, an arched back, leg rigidity, excruciating muscle spasms, severe blood pressure fluctuations, a racing heart, and neck and stomach muscles so tight, they impair breathing. Up to 20% of people infected with tetanus die. The vaccine, first administered in 1947, also guards against diptheria and whooping cough.
  4. Mumps. The mumps virus causes a fever and swollen salivary glands in the ears, which can cause deafness. Mumps can also cause infertility or sterility, seizures, and strokes. There has been a 99% decrease in cases since 1967 as a result of the MMR vaccine, but since 2006, cases have surpassed 6,000 on three occasions due to lack of vaccination.
  5. Rubella. Rubella, which begins with a face rash, is usually mild in children, but can be dangerous to pregnant women. Rubella can cause miscarriage, severe birth defects, heart problems, liver or spleen damage, blindness, intellectual disability, brain infections, and bleeding problems. Worldwide, about 32,000 babies are born with congenital rubella syndrome, and about a third of them die before their first birthday.
  6. Polio. A contagious viral infection of the nerves and brain, polio is spread through the mouth from stool on contaminated hands, food, or liquid. Worldwide, polio paralyzed more than 5000,000 people annually in the 1950s. At the time, parents feared their children would become paralyzed and either die, or end up in a wheelchair or iron lung from touching an infected object. The polio vaccine succeeded in reducing 21,000 cases in 1953 to just one in 1993. Now, as more parents skip the polio vaccine, the disease is making a comeback. Last year, there were 672 confirmed cases of polio in 39 countries.

We can and should protect our children from diseases that have successfully been eradicated due to the hard work of scientists. Learn more about these diseases and suggested ages for vaccination at www.cdc.gov/vaccines-children/diseases/index.html.