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.
I had that when I was 6...but then they said it was scarletina...
Thu Mar 30, 9:22 PM ET
Several cases of mumps have been confirmed in Adams County in south-central Nebraska, the Nebraska Health and Human Services System said Thursday.
Potential cases in Jefferson and Hamilton counties were also being investigated.
Mumps is a highly contagious viral infection of the salivary glands. It's spread through coughing or sneezing or through direct contact with saliva or mucus.
Health experts say mumps can lead to deafness, meningitis, a swelling of the testicles or ovaries and, rarely, death.
The Iowa Department of Public Health has confirmed 219 cases of mumps so far this year, and Nebraska officials said the people with mumps in Adams County have connections to Iowa.
Nebraska's state epidemiologist, Dr. Tom Safranek, said people 30 to 65 years old who haven't had the disease or been vaccinated are most at risk. Symptoms include fever, headache and swollen glands under the jaw.
But was it Germain messels?
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.
This was an episode of South Park (except it was chicken pox)
One of my dogs had to have one of those plastic collars put on her, when we had her fixed...one day I was walking her along the beach, and I ran into some foreign tourists getting off a tour bus...they had never seen one of those collars on an animal...those tourists were supposed to be looking at the beach, but instead they were all crowded around my dog, just amazed at what she was wearing...
When I explained what it was for, the response was, "You Americans are so very smart"...I had to laugh at that one...they said they were going to carry this idea back to Germany(which is where they were from), and let their vets work on it...
This was about 15ys ago, and from their reaction, this collar on a dog, was something they had never seen before...my dog was a tourist hot spot...
I hesitate before vaccinating my youngest.
Also, vaccines do not protect fully against the illness, nor do they confer longtime immunity.
Case in point: at my son's gym, the chicken pox is going around. About half the kids who are coming down with it were vaccinated.
It is safer for elementary aged kids to get the diseases than teens and adults. But some of our vaccines bow out before the teen years. They are now thinking of having teens get revaccinated for everything. It's not straightforward, nor is vaccination "immunization."
Welcome to FreeRepublic!
As long as enough kids are vaccinated to break the back of an incipient epidemic, it is sufficent from a public health standpoint.
Better vaccines are being developed, and hopfully our children won't have the same concerns when it becomes time to vaccinate their childre,
"vaccine was required everywhere in the US"
It is required here......that is if you are FROM here..........!!
Thanks
Anyone with allergies or severe asthma. My son (b.1965) has congenital asthma diagnosed as adrenal insufficiency (in some sort of remission since he has been about 35, thank God!), As I recall, at that time, at least, the vaccine was produced in horse serum and the MD said he could not have it. He had a waiver on his medical record. Funny thing is, we tried to expose him so he would have primary immunity, as we both have, being born prior to the vaccine. He never caught it. Except for the asthma, he has always had wonderful health and has great teeth, too.
German: I saw this Sputnik-looking doggie in America...really , I did. :-)
I know..the whole encounter with them was really funny....
Actually when I had my dog fixed, that was the first time I had ever seen one of those collars...I thought she would fuss about having it on...but she never did...acted like it was not even there...she was a really laid back dog, and as long as she got attention, love, and lots of food, she did not care what anyone put on her...actually with that collar on, she did receive extra attention from other people who saw her...she no doubt, loved it, and maybe appreciated the collar for grabbing extra attention from strangers...
When the vet took the collar off, she thought my dog would express some happiness at having the thing off...but my dog gave no response at all...she just did not care, one way or another if she was wearing that collar or not...
I didn't know it was Woody Allen. I could have sworn my Dad used to say that long before that movie.
We would get a note... "Your Child May Have Been Exposed To Rubella, etc., etc."
Many notes here...
(Once it was MY kid who was the cause - strep. *sigh*)
Apparently it was quite commonplace. Just cuz it was on Southpark doesn't mean they made it up.
I get your point....
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