Cleveland County Health Department officials recommend vaccinations as the best way to protect children from life-threatening diseases.

“It’s important that children get their immunizations, and get them on time,” said Beverly Bynum, district nurse manager for Cleveland and McClain counties. “If they get their shots as scheduled, they don’t have to get that many at one time.

“It’s when they’ve missed we have to play catch-up and give extra shots,” she said.

If caregivers put off getting children immunized until the kids begin school, the kids, 5 years old, will be getting six or seven shots, she said.

Bynum said children’s immunization schedules are provided by physicians, hospitals and health departments. Schedules also are available at www.immunization.org — a “great Web site to find out lots of information about vaccinations,” she said.

Bynum said the “benefits of vaccinations are so much greater than the risks of side effects.”

“The incidence of side effects are very, very low,” she said. “Maybe a sore arm and a slight fever.”

Nevertheless, there is a growing fear among parents that certain vaccinations are causing children to contract conditions such as autism.

“There is yet to be any confirmed scientific link between autism and the vaccine. Different studies linking autism to the vaccine have not yet been proven,” she said.

Bynum said health department officials are seeing more people asking questions, with some opting out of certain immunizations.

“They’ll pick and choose which ones to take and which ones to put off,” she said. “Unfortunately they don’t always come back for the other shots.”

With busy life schedules, it’s difficult for parents to make arrangements to bring in their children, and sometimes they just forget about it, she said.

U.S. health officials worry that an upsurge in diseases will occur, as a result of people’s fears about immunizations.

Bynum said a successful vaccination campaign virtually eradicated the measles disease in the U.S., to the point where measles elimination was declared in 2000.

But this year, up to April 25, a total of 64 cases have been reported — 54 of which were imported from countries outside the U.S. This is the highest number for this time of year since 2001, said the Centers for Disease Control. Sixty-three of the 64 patients had not been vaccinated, Bynum said.