Not vaccinating your child? Be aware of the risks.

Immunizations, like any medication, can cause side effects.

However, not immunizing a child can put the child and others who come into contact with him or her at risk of getting a disease that could be dangerous or deadly.

Take measles as an example:

• One out of 30 children with measles gets pneumonia
• For every 1,000 children who get the disease, one or two will die from it
• Because of vaccines, we have few cases of measles in the U.S. today

However, the disease is extremely contagious and each year dozens of cases are imported from abroad into the U.S., threatening the health of people who have not been vaccinated