In the 1950s, before a measles vaccine was widely available, nearly all American children contracted measles by the time they were 15 years old.
Measles was a very common childhood disease in the United States, with an estimated 3 to 4 million infections annually, resulting in hundreds of deaths and tens of thousands of hospitalizations.
In discussing who should be, or get, vaccinated, the local paper said state health officials have concluded that those born before 1957 are very likely to have had the disease and have natural immunity.