BATON ROUGE — Baton Rouge doctors are worried polio could come back because of misinformation regarding vaccines and lower vaccination rates.

Polio was eradicated in the United States in 1979 due to high vaccination rates, Dr. Jennifer Herricks said at the Baton Rouge Rotary Club on Wednesday.

"Although the U.S. has generally high polio vaccination rates, there are certain pockets, certain communities that have lower rates and because polio is not eradicated the way that we've eradicated smallpox globally, there's always a risk that that can come back," Herricks said.

Herricks founded Louisiana Families for Vaccines two years ago with the goal of making sure everyone has access to vaccines and is informed before meeting with their healthcare provider.

"Vaccine science is always advancing and so the vaccines we have now, actually have a much higher safety profile. They've always been safe, but we now have less of what we call antigens in vaccines today. The antigen is the part your immune system reacts to," Herricks said.

According to Herricks' presentation, the polio vaccination rates for one-year-olds in the United States have been steady around or above 90% since the mid-1990s. Internationally, rates have been below that, sitting at just 80% in 2021.

If vaccines are not widespread, polio can be brought into the United States, Herricks said. The U.S. even reported a new case of polio in Rockland County, New York, in 2022. This man was found to be unvaccinated.

During the presentation, Herricks spoke about how battling misinformation has gotten harder. Doctors in Baton Rouge say it is something they deal with often.

"Pediatricians are struggling with misinformation around vaccines. It's a daily battle in our offices," Our Lady of the Lake Pediatrician Dr. Mikki Bouquet said.

Bouquet says parents will often come in with preconceptions that doctors give more shots than needed. She said one way she deals with those concerns is by telling them about "combo vaccines."

"It's the same vaccine component that's been around for decades, but we're just putting them in one vaccine so that the child only has to get one vaccine, so that the child only has to get one injection, compared to three injections," Bouquet said.

Rotary Club members told WBRZ they were surprised by the statistics in the presentation.

"Some of the statistics that were shared today. A lot of people think that eradication is all done and polio doesn't really exist. You know, today was very eye-opening," Rotary Club President Gregory Wood said.

The doctors WBRZ spoke to say that now is also the time for people to get their flu shots.