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Iowa experiencing mumps epidemic
WSYX 6 News ^ | March 31, 2006

Posted on 03/31/2006 1:44:21 PM PST by flutters

A puzzle for health officials and a worry for parents. Iowa is experiencing an epidemic of mumps.

State health officials say 245 confirmed, probable or suspected cases were reported as of yesterday. State epidemiologist Patricia Quinlisk says that's enough for officials to call it an epidemic and not just an outbreak.

Quinlisk says before this year, Iowa counted only about five cases annually. The illnesses that have spread across more than a third of the state add up to the country's only mumps outbreak, and Iowa's first such epidemic in more than 20 years.

Federal health watchers say they have no answers yet about the cause.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Iowa
KEYWORDS: bushsfault; epidemic; mumps; publichealth
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To: calex59

My Mom told me that when she was a kid when a neighbor kid got the measles, all the other moms in the neighborhood would bring their kids in to get exposed. That way they all got it over with at once.


41 posted on 03/31/2006 1:57:53 PM PST by Flavius Josephus (War today is always cheaper than war tomorrow.)
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To: me-here

This is the first I heard of this</i>


42 posted on 03/31/2006 1:59:07 PM PST by me-here
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To: lysie

A cough! A cough! Consumption be done about it? (olde joke)


43 posted on 03/31/2006 1:59:07 PM PST by Flavius Josephus (War today is always cheaper than war tomorrow.)
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To: flutters
Mom made me keep socks on my hands to keep from scratching.

yeah...
like those socks stayed on...
lol
44 posted on 03/31/2006 1:59:10 PM PST by firewalk
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To: flutters

"We're trying to figure out why is it happening, why is it happening in Iowa and why is it happening right now. We don't know," she said.

CDC spokeswoman Lola Russell said the federal agency has no answers yet. But Quinlisk said one theory is that the infection was brought over from England _ perhaps by a college student _ because the strain seen in Iowa has been identified by the CDC as the same one that has caused tens of thousands of cases of the mumps in a major outbreak in Britain over the past two years.

"It may have been a college student, since we did see the first activities on college campuses, but we can't prove that,"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/31/AR2006033101016.html


45 posted on 03/31/2006 1:59:28 PM PST by Velveeta
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To: BeforeISleep

My mom put this funny looking thing like an upside down lampshade around my neck so I couldn't reach my face to scratch.


46 posted on 03/31/2006 2:00:23 PM PST by Flavius Josephus (War today is always cheaper than war tomorrow.)
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To: jackadams
I can guess where they came from. Same people who returned resistant TB to this country.

They're just spreading the diseases Americans won't spread...

47 posted on 03/31/2006 2:00:34 PM PST by null and void (Start worrying. Details to follow...)
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To: flutters
I remember having chicken pox. I hated those.

We currently have an outbreak of chicken pox in our local grade school here in small town Texas.
48 posted on 03/31/2006 2:00:51 PM PST by Liberty Valance (Money will buy you a fine dog but only love can make it wag it's tail :o)
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To: MaryFromMichigan

You're right. I know some refuse to get their kids vaccinated. Mistake, IMHO.


49 posted on 03/31/2006 2:01:01 PM PST by mlc9852
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To: Flavius Josephus

I had to Google that.


50 posted on 03/31/2006 2:01:42 PM PST by lysie
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To: digger48

....or whopping cough........;-)


51 posted on 03/31/2006 2:01:42 PM PST by OB1kNOb (America is the land of the free BECAUSE of the BRAVE !!)
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To: DBrow
Hmmm, what group of ppl would not have had the shots mandatory in the USA?

Or perhaps are carrying a strain the current vaccine doesn't protect against?

52 posted on 03/31/2006 2:01:46 PM PST by null and void (Start worrying. Details to follow...)
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To: Flavius Josephus

I think South Park did an episode along those lines...one of the kids got chicken pox, and right away, all the other moms brought their kids over, so that they would all also get chicken pox, and get it over in one big swoop...did not really watch the episode, for some reason or another, but I do think that was the jist of it..


53 posted on 03/31/2006 2:01:58 PM PST by andysandmikesmom
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To: calex59
Same here.All six of us siblings got all that.The cure?Mom and her 'doctoring'.Doctors were out of the picture cause we weren't very well off.The advantage was,you got spoiled a lot,had all the jello,pudding ,soup,you could handle!Of all,the mumps really sucked!Measles,chickenpox,all were the norm at the time.We usually caught it at school.
54 posted on 03/31/2006 2:02:02 PM PST by xarmydog
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To: Flavius Josephus
My mom put this funny looking thing like an upside down lampshade around my neck so I couldn't reach my face to scratch.

you're making this up as you go along...
aren't you...
55 posted on 03/31/2006 2:02:22 PM PST by firewalk
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To: mlc9852

NO ONE said Mexicans until you brought it up. Are you a racist?


56 posted on 03/31/2006 2:02:45 PM PST by null and void (Start worrying. Details to follow...)
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To: Flavius Josephus

Oh my! They use those things on dogs and cats. Poor you! ;-)


57 posted on 03/31/2006 2:03:08 PM PST by lysie
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To: lysie

I had a friend in grammar school who got it... missed a lot of school recouping from it. As far as I know... he didn't have any heart damage.


58 posted on 03/31/2006 2:03:30 PM PST by johnny7 (“Nah, I ain’t Jewish, I just don’t dig on swine, that’s all.”)
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To: mlc9852

Don't just blame Mexicans it could also be OTM illegal alien invaders who are obviously not screened for infectious diseases..nor are their children...who are bringing diseases America once eradicated..back into America's schools...

5 cases being the norm... & a large influx of illegals in Iowa

The odds favor this being a distinct possiblity...


59 posted on 03/31/2006 2:05:14 PM PST by joesnuffy (Guest Worker Program Is To Border Security As Campaign Finance Reform Is To Free Speech)
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To: OB1kNOb

I DID have the messles


60 posted on 03/31/2006 2:05:28 PM PST by digger48
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