Immunization is one of the most important things you can do to protect yourself, your family and your community from infectious diseases.
Over the years, vaccines have prevented countless cases of disease and saved millions of lives. Children, adolescents and adults need different vaccinations, depending on their age, location, job, lifestyle, travel schedule, health conditions or previous vaccinations.
Before the measles vaccination program started in the U.S. in 1963, an estimated 3 million to 4 million people in the country got measles each year. Of the reported cases of measles each year prior to introduction of the vaccine, 48,000 were hospitalized and nearly 500 died. Since then, widespread use of the measles vaccine has resulted in a greater than 99% reduction in measles cases and deaths compared to the pre-vaccine era. Learn more about measles and measles vaccination.