The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recently reported measles outbreaks among unvaccinated individuals in Arizona, Virginia, Michigan, San Diego, New York City and Michigan.

The outbreaks appear to have been initiated by measles-carrying travelers from overseas. (The two Michigan cases apparently were infected by merely passing through Atlanta International Airport.) Now we learn a 23-month-old, unvaccinated child in Milwaukee has measles. Ominously, the child had no history of travel outside the state.

Eighteen years ago, measles was introduced into Milwaukee and went on to attack more than 1,100 people, causing over 200 hospitalizations and three deaths.

Seventy-five percent of those hospitalized and all three who died were young children. I admitted to Children 's Hospital of Wisconsin one patient who fortunately survived. His high fever, whole body rash and extreme inflammation of eyes, mouth and throat is an image still vivid in my mind.

Of the 50,000 cases reported during the 1989-91 national measles epidemic, 140 died. The engine that drove that epidemic was unvaccinated, preschool-age children.

Nowadays, many people have forgotten how serious measles can be and perhaps are unaware that measles is still very prevalent in the world.

Several hundred thousand victims, mostly children, die every year. Many of those who survive are left deaf or go on to develop a chronic degenerative brain disease called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis.

Ever increasing world travel and persistent reluctance to vaccinate children have again put us at-risk for re-emergence of this killer disease in the United States.

In recent years, allegations that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR) is linked to autism have created unnecessary fear and suspicion. This is unfortunate in that MMR is a very safe vaccine and is 95 percent effective in preventing measles.

Autism is a heartbreaking affliction that becomes apparent in early childhood, at the same time that most vaccinations are given, but is not caused by vaccination.

The one, very small, study that initiated the MMR/autism controversy 10 years ago, has been repudiated by two of its three authors. Moreover, it has since come to light that its lead author, Dr. Anthony Andrew Wakefield, was in the pay of plaintiff 's lawyers. More recent, carefully done studies in Britain, Denmark and the United States show that autism strikes children who have been vaccinated and children who have not been vaccinated at exactly the same rates.

In Wisconsin, the vast majority of children are properly vaccinated -- over 90 percent for those enrolled in school.

But the number of parents who refuse vaccination for their children because of the MMR/autism controversy and other vaccine-safety misconceptions is growing. This trend raises concerns not only for those children but also for the entire population.

Schlenker is director of public health for Madison and Dane County.