When I was a kid, it seemed like every kid got the measles at some time. For families with multiple kids, sometimes it would spread through the house like wildfire and then there were families where only one child at a time got sick with the measles.

I had two older brothers and younger sister, but before she was born, one of my brothers was sent home from school before lunch because he broke out with the measles. By the time the other brother got home, he had also had the measles. Before bedtime, I had the measles. I remember mom saying it was easier on her to have us all sick at the same time than one a time.

Measles can be serious, but for the majority of cases, it’s more of an inconvenient illness that, at the time, seemed to be a part of childhood. Around 1912, there were about 6,000 measles deaths a year in the United States. That promoted John Enders and his colleagues to develop the first measles vaccine in 1963. In 1968, their measles vaccine was improved and since then, millions of kids are vaccinated to prevent the spotted disease.

As the use of the measles vaccine and other vaccines increased since that time, the number of children diagnosed with various forms of autism has also increased. Some have tried to link vaccines to autism. Most vaccines have other necessary ingredients such as preservatives, suspensions and other compounds used to make the vaccine more useable in the body and it’s these added ingredients that are often singled out as the culprits that cause autism.

The controversy of a vaccine – autism relationship has waged for the past few decades. Even though diseases like the measles had been reduced by over 80%, they are making a comeback because many parents refuse to have their children vaccinated. There are currently a number of reported outbreaks of measles in children in various part of the country, which has many health experts concerned.

Why the recent outbreaks of measles? It’s because the measles vaccine, which has been so widely used is one of those singled out as causing autism.

A new study conducted in Denmark looked at over 650,000 children born between 1999 and 2010. They were looking to see if the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine was related to an increased risk of the children developing autism.

According to what was reported:

“It found the vaccine did not increase the risk of autism in children who were not considered at risk for the disorder and did not trigger it in those who were.”

“More than 95 percent of the children received the vaccine.”

“Less than 1 percent of the children in the study were diagnosed with autism.”

In fact, I have yet to find any decent scientific studies that prove that the MMR vaccine has been directly linked as being a cause of autism. Both of my daughters had their MMR vaccines when they were quite young and neither of them have any signs of autism. I know many other kids who had the MMR vaccine and none of them are autistic.

Is the MMR vaccine safe? That’s the call every parent has to make for themselves.