Dr. Anne Schuchat, a principal deputy director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on Wednesday, weighed in on a decades-long debate, saying there’s no link between vaccinations and autism.

“Autism is a terrible condition and it’s a real struggle for families that are dealing with it, but based on dozens of studies and everything I know as a physician and a scientist, there’s no link between autism and vaccines,” Schuchat told Hill.TV “Rising” co-hosts Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton.

Autism — or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) — is a broad umbrella term used to describe a developmental disorder that impacts the way one communicates, behaviors or interacts with others.

There are also different types of autism like Asperger's Syndrome, and symptoms can vary from mild to severe depending on where one is on the autism spectrum.

Over the past two decades, there has been a debate whether vaccines had any impact on whether a child would later develop autism.

It started in the 1990s when British researchers published a report in a peer-reviewed journal called “The Lancet,” claiming that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) caused autism.

This report was later retracted and the research is now clear: More than a dozen studies conducted by private and public groups have failed to come up with a link between autism and vaccinations.

But more and more Americans have been diagnosed with ASD in recent years as the awareness and understanding surrounding the developmental disorder continues to grow.

In April, the CDC reported that the number of children who have been diagnosed with the disorder by age eight increased from 1 in 68 to 1 in 59 children in 2014.

— Tess Bonn