NATCHEZ — Back to school means a return to books, teachers, classmates and for those just starting out, vaccination shots.

District Seven Health Officer Dr. Leslie England said the shots are required in Mississippi and urged parents to get started early.

“We want people to understand vaccines are safe and extremely effective,” he said. “Because of them, we don’t have to live with polio, measles, tetanus and small pox to name a few, all of which are lethal.”

England said some states, including neighboring Tennessee, have allowed philosophical exemptions for vaccinations after concerns started growing about a link between vaccines and autism.

Many concerns grew from U.K. based Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s study that linked the two. The report has since been retracted and discredited with concerns the medical histories of the families involved were misrepresented or altered in the 1998 study.

Further, Tennessee has suffered from disease outbreaks since allowing parents to opt out because of philosophical differences, England said.

“A couple months ago there was a measles outbreak in Memphis,” he said. “It never penetrated Mississippi, not even in Southaven. That’s because our vaccination rates are so high.”

England said it is much safer to take vaccines than to not take them. He said it would be like a soldier going to war without a helmet and vest.

“Vaccines are science’s gift to humanity,” he said. “To not take them is just foolish.”

The required vaccinations to enter school in Mississippi are diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella and varicella.

England said four shots and one oral dose are required for the nine diseases. The polio vaccination is delivered orally, he said.

England said a parent can schedule an appointment with many area physicians, but he said he imagined most people would go through the Adams County Health Department, which can be contacted at 601-445-4601.

“We are trying to get as many children vaccinated as possible,” he said. “Mississippi has the highest percent of children vaccinated against disease, and we want to prevent even a chance of these diseases cropping up.”

Parents home schooling their children could opt out, but England said it is far safer to get the vaccination.

“It is much, much safer for your children to receive the vaccination than not,” he said. “After losing one of his sons to small pox, Ben Franklin said not having his son vaccinated was his life’s biggest regret.”