According to today's Wall Street Journal, the United States had its largest outbreak of measles for nine years in May of 2005. Indiana reported 34 cases in one outbreak (there were only 27 cases among all U.S. residents in 2004). Interestingly, all but one of the patients were out of the same church and 20 of these were home-schooled children. A 17-year-old girl in the church had taken a mission trip to an orphanage in Romania, had contracted the measles there, and had attended a church-wide gathering the day after she returned to the States. Most of the children who caught the measles had not been vaccinated. Refusal to be immunized is usually caused by fear that the vaccinations can lead to autism, although the form of mercury that has raised concern, thimerasol, is not used in the United States. Professor Kim Mulholland said that such outbreaks will continue to occur as long as parents "respond to spurious claims about the risks of vaccine by refusing to vaccinate their infants." Note: I make no judgment call on this one, but think it needs to be passed along.