Vaccines changed medicine
Vaccines have literally transformed the landscape of medicine over the course of the 20th century.

Before vaccines, parents in the United States could expect that every year:

• Polio would paralyze 10,000 children.
• Rubella (German measles) would cause birth defects and mental retardation in as many as 20,000 newborns.
• Measles would infect about 4 million children, killing 3,000.
• Diphtheria would be one of the most common causes of death in school-aged children.
• A bacterium called Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) would cause meningitis in 15,000 children, leaving many with permanent brain damage.
• Pertussis (whooping cough) would kill thousands of infants.

Vaccines have reduced and, in some cases, eliminated many diseases that killed or severely disabled people just a few generations before.  Unfortunately, we have seen a rise in Measles in the unvaccinated population.   For most Americans today, vaccines are a routine part of healthcare but those that choose not to get vaccinated are putting themselves at risk due to the global world we live in.