Donald Trump has said people "have to get their shots" in an apparent attempt to encourage vaccinations in the face of a measles outbreak sweeping parts of the US. In the past, the president has repeatedly linked vaccinations to autism.

"The vaccinations are so important. This is really going around now," he told reporters outside the White House. "They have to get their shots."

The president was speaking in the wake of a troubling resurgence in the spread of the disease, which was once eradicated. The number of measles cases in the US is now at the highest level since 2000.

Some 700 cases have been reported this year, and the spread has been largely attributed to misinformation that is turning parents against vaccines.

The warning comes despite the fact that Mr Trump has repeatedly attempted to link vaccinations and autism, flying in the face of scientific evidence.

The famous faces of the anti-vaccine movement Show all 7 1 /7 The famous faces of the anti-vaccine movement The famous faces of the anti-vaccine movement Charlie Sheen Sheen fought a legal battle against ex-wife Denise Richards to try and block her from vaccinating their children. Richards of course won and Sheen was reportedly so bitter that he paid the paediatrician bill entirely in nickels Getty The famous faces of the anti-vaccine movement Gwyneth Paltrow Paltrow's "health and wellness" company Goop hosted a notorious anti-vaccine speaker at their 2018 Goop Summit Getty The famous faces of the anti-vaccine movement Rob Schneider Schneider demanded the freedom to decline vaccination Getty The famous faces of the anti-vaccine movement Jenny McCarthy McCarthy has claimed that "people are dying from vaccinations", believes that her son caught autism from a vaccine and has pushed her opinions on the topic publicly for many years AFP/Getty The famous faces of the anti-vaccine movement Bill Maher Maher has long spoken against vaccines sating on Larry King live that "a flu shot is the worst thing you can do." His stance appears to stem from a distrust of government AFP/Getty The famous faces of the anti-vaccine movement Alicia Silverstone In Silverstone's book The Kind Mama, she wrote that "there is increasing anecdotal evidence from doctors who have gotten distressed phone calls from parents claiming their child was ‘never the same’ after receiving a vaccine." Getty The famous faces of the anti-vaccine movement Andrew Wakefield Godfather of the anti-vax movement, disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield famously published a report in the medical journal Lancet claiming a link between the MMR vaccine and autism in 1998. The Lancet retracted the report in 2010 and Wakefield was struck off the medical register PA

He has tweeted about the conspiracy theory more than 20 times, to the dismay of leading scientific groups. Mr Trump also met with leading anti-vaccination campaigners before his election.

The US's own federal agency, the Centres for Disease Control, has repeatedly urged citizens to ensure that they and their children are vaccinated.

“CDC, the Federal Drug Administration, and the Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices, regularly review data to ensure that vaccine recommendations are based on the latest available science to provide safe and effective protection against serious diseases. Concerned parents should be reassured that recommended childhood vaccines have a strong safety record.”

It added: “For the general population, maintaining high vaccination levels is important not only for the individual person but also to protect potentially deadly diseases from spreading to the most vulnerable among us, such as patients with weakened immune systems and newborn children who are too young to be vaccinated.”