TYLER, Texas — With summer coming to an end, students across the country will be headed to the doctor's office for their vaccinations.
The State of Texas requires all students to be vaccinated unless they receive an exemption for medical or philosophical reasons.
However, a small percentage of unvaccinated people in the country caused an unexpected outbreak of the measles. So far in 2019, there have 21 confirmed cases of the measles in Texas alone.
“If you are not immunized against the measles, and you are in a room where someone has had the measles, that virus floats in the air," UT Health East Texas Pediatrician Dr. Monique Mills said. "If you are exposed to it, there is a 90% chance that you will get sick with the measles.”
Dr. Mills says children should begin getting vaccines at birth and should stay on the standard CDC immunization schedule.
"That will keep them as healthy as they can be through the beginning of the school year and up into adolescence and emerging adulthood as well,” Dr. Mills said.
Mills says she has never seen a negative effect from a vaccines. She also says the idea that vaccines can lead to autism is false.
"That came from an article that was published in 1998 with some science that was flawed, and it's been proven dozens of times over and over again," Dr. Mills said. "MMR does not cause autism."
In all, there are seven vaccines required by the state of Texas:
Required vaccines for students in the state of Texas are:
- Diphtheria/Tetanus/Pertussis
- Hepatitis A
- Hepatitis B
- Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR)
- Meningococcal
- Polio
- Varicella