In recent years, America has seen the re-emergence of diseases that were previously proven to be preventable with modern medicine and vaccines. These diseases that were once almost eradicated are re-emerging mainly due to the recent trend of not vaccinating children. The argument behind this trend is that vaccines cause more harm than good and lead to other diseases like autism. These ideals, however, have no factual evidence to support them, as no scientific body has been able to find a link between vaccines and autism. Although not vaccinating a child can cause them to contract a horrible disease, an unvaccinated child also puts those around them at risk. A single outbreak of a disease such as measles can infect thousands of vaccinated and unvaccinated people. Although many parents refuse to vaccinate their children due to moral or religious beliefs, it is an irresponsible practice because it causes the re-emergence of diseases such as polio, measles, diphtheria and whooping cough; a national decision must therefore be taken to make vaccinations compulsory. A vaccination works by strengthening the immune system early so that it can respond better and more quickly to the disease. This practice works because vacations are basically a less virulent aspect of an illness that your immune system can easily handle. Human beings have a special immune system that can remember illness and know how to fight it. The cells responsible for this are plasma cells which can produce certain memory cells to remember how to fight a certain pathogen or disease. Because the immune system is already familiar with the disease, it will be able to respond more quickly and effectively to threats to the body. Vaccinations are a safe and effective way to prevent diseases such as polio, measles, diphtheria and whooping cough, which are occurring with increasing frequency. These diseases all benefited from preventative vaccines that almost eradicated them from the United States; However, as parents refuse to vaccinate their children, any progress the medical industry has made in controlling these deadly killers has been lost. Although many parents exempt their children from vaccinations for religious and medical reasons, each exempt child adds to the growing risk of infection. Additionally, parents who chose not to vaccinate because they feared vaccines would cause autism are not only misguided and misinformed, but they are also the primary cause of the growing anti-vaccine epidemic. Before more people die, before more children die, vaccines must be made mandatory to prevent entirely preventable diseases from claiming new lives..