With Whooping Cough making a resurgence this fall and an uptick in reported cases of Tuberculosis and other seemingly eradicated contagious diseases, a lot of people have been pondering what's gone wrong.

For the past few generations, Americans have lived without a lot of personal, first-hand knowledge of diseases like Tuberculosis (T.B.), Whooping Cough, Measles, and Mumps.  For most, these contagious diseases that were once common had come to live on only in medical journals and history books.

However, that's been changing - and it's left a lot of people searching for answers.

Speaking in general terms, most of these diseases were pushed to the back burner through the use of vaccines.  With a vigilant vaccine program for American children, the medical profession was able to contain and diminish the number of those affected to almost none.

But in recent years, there's been a growing revolution of people who choose not to vaccinate their children.  There are many reasons for this backlash against vaccines but most of the conscientious objectors fall into two distinct camps:  Those that prefer a holistic approach to medicine and those that are fearful that the vaccines themselves might do more  harm than good.

In particular, there has been a growing concern among some parents that these vaccines can increase the chances of their child developing autism.   Even though the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has researched the issue and has come out with the opinion that there isn't a link between these childhood vaccines and autism, some parents choose to opt out for their children.

There is also a growing concern among observers that we have become lax with regard to our borders.  As stringent as we are about interrogating our own citizens, we often look the other way as foreign visitors enter our country without any regard to the diseases they may have been exposed to.

So what do we do to control the reemergence of these once-quashed diseases?  That is a question that has many different answers.

What do YOU think?

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