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The New York City Health Department issued a warning to doctors and city residents to be cautious of measles, after identifying 11 infection cases of the virus in Brooklyn.

The DOH is also investigating an additional case they consider of a suspect nature.

Though the Centers for Disease Control considered the virus eliminated from the U.S. in 2000, Department of Health officials site an increase in infection rates to parents who fear the measles vaccination. A possible myth that links mercury in the vaccine to autism and other disorders is what frightens parents, DOH officials said.

DOH officials said the discovered strain of measles, identical to one circulating in Europe, was found primarily in the Williamsburg and Borough Park areas of Brooklyn.

The 11 confirmed infection cases, discovered in the past two months, involved children between the ages of 8 months and 4 years, as well as in two adults. Each of the individuals had either no or only partial vaccination to measles.

Vaccines decrease the possibility of contracting the virus characterized by fever, coughing and rashes, DOH officials said.

“Vaccinating eligible children will protect them and help protect infants who are too young to be vaccinated, by reducing their risk of exposure,” said Dr. Jane Zucker, the Health Department’s assistant commissioner for immunization. “Delaying a child’s vaccination increases the risk of contracting measles and infecting others.”

Yet a constant fear remains in many parent’s minds that a child may have impaired social abilities should he or she take the vaccine, officials said.

Dr. Eric Fombonne, Director of Pediatric Psychiatry at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, conducted an investigation into discovering a possible link between the vaccine and developmental disorders. He and a team of researchers released data to support that “there is no relationship between the level of exposure to MMR vaccines and…rates of autism.”

“According to our data, the incidence of autism was higher in children who were vaccinated after thimerosal was eliminated from vaccines,” he reported to Science Daily after revealing his findings in 2006. “In the past, concern about a potential link between MMR vaccinations and autism led some parents to take the drastic step of refusing to inoculate their children against dangerous childhood diseases like measles. This action resulted in resurgence of the measles, which caused the deaths of several young children in Europe.”

Dr. Zucker and DOH officials in a press release stated that infants should receive the first of two measles shots at age 1 and that the second dose should be received between the ages of 4 and 6.

Adults and children who have not received the vaccine or had the disease, they said, may be at risk of infection.