Thirty leading pediatricians and childhood vaccination experts wrote an open letter pleading that misgivings about the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine could lead to lives lost. They insist that the MMR vaccine is proven safe by science.

The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine was associated to autism in a Lancet paper in 1998.The paper has since been discredited, but nonetheless, immunization rates have dropped recently in the U.K

The General Medical Council has charged Andrew Wakefield with serious professional misconduct on his research that suggests a link between Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Virus (MMR) and autism.

Calling it an "inadequately founded" research, Dr. Wakefield's initial Lancet paper has since been disowned by the journal

According to The Detroit News, 36 suspected and/or confirmed cases of the mumps have now been reported in Michigan.

According to a local pediatrician, children should have been vaccinated twice between the ages of 1 and 4 years. Doctors are advising parents to verify that their children have received both vaccinations, and if they have not, then they should do so now

The numbers of reported cases of the mumps continues to rise in the Midwest United States, spreading now to Colorado.

Iowa is currently at the center of the outbreak, where the state's Department of Public Health says there are 1,120 confirmed, probable and suspect cases, coming from 69 out of Iowa's 99 counties

U.S. health officials are looking for an answer as eight states are suffering from an outbreak of the mumps.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) says Iowa alone has seen over 600 suspected cases since December, and other states, including Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin are all reporting patients with the virus