Washington DC - President Donald Trump's brutal cuts to the Centers for Disease Control could endanger a federal health program that provides children with free vaccinations against some of the world's most dangerous diseases.

The Vaccines for Children Program provides about half of the shots given to children in the US every year and has an annual budget of $5 billion, an amount that some worry will be reduced.

Some $11 billion in CDC funding has been cut since Trump took office, many of which was directed towards vaccine clinics and outreach, even as measles rages across several US states.

"We are scraping to find the resources and personnel needed to provide support to Texas, and other jurisdictions," Dr. David Sugerman, a senior scientist at the CDC, told Reuters.

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Cuts made to agencies in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have already had impacts on other parts of the vaccine supply chain.

In just one of many examples, the US Food and Drug Administration under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in February scrapped an annual meeting that was vital for the rollout of this year's flu vaccine.

Concerns around potential cuts to the Vaccines for Children Program center on the risk that families will avoid getting their children vaccinated because of the higher cost.

"We've had quite a big uptick in vaccine administration lately," Shawna Maestas, a manager at a pediatric clinic in Albuquerque, told Reuters. "But if families had to pay for it, they would push it off."