Posted on 04/01/2006 1:01:10 AM PST by neverdem
Perplexed health officials are trying to find the cause of a skyrocketing number of mumps cases in Iowa, the nation's largest outbreak of the infection in 17 years.
At least 245 cases have been reported in Iowa in the past three months. The state previously averaged five per year. The number is approaching the average annual number reported nationwide.
"When you expect five and you get 245, this is pretty serious," said Patricia Quinlisk, state epidemiologist at the Iowa department of public health. "We're trying to get ahead of it and get it stopped."
The most recent epidemic of mumps occurred in Douglas County, Kan., with 269 cases from 1988 to 1989, said Lola Russell, a spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
College students in Iowa account for about 23 percent of the reported cases of the infection, commonly transmitted by coughing or sneezing. About half of the cases are people ages 17 to 25.
Close quarters in dormitories, classrooms and cafeterias and perhaps a lower vaccination rate on college campuses might have made the student population more vulnerable, Ms. Quinlisk said.
"It could be that on some of these college campuses, they were not as well vaccinated as we'd like them to be," she said. But she added, "Our law does not allow us to identify entities associated with outbreaks."
The infection is characterized by symptoms that include fever, headache and swollen salivary glands under the jaw. At least 66 percent of the infected people in Iowa had previously received the recommended two doses of the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella.
"It's working at a 95 percent efficacy rate, which is darn good," Ms. Quinlisk said of the vaccine, which is required of school-age children. "We don't understand why the vaccine doesn't take in..."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I had the Mumps at 6 years of age. I also caught the Measles at 8 years of age. I think the MMR immunization I was given before age 5 was weak and ineffective. At 34, my immune system seems to be immune to virtually everything now. I haven't been ill in 3 years, and during adulthood entirely, I have been ill maybe 4 times.
Another present from Senor Fox perhaps?
Embryonic Stem Cell Hucksters Exploit Paralysis Victims
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
I would be surprised if they are not.
"Don't you think the CDC should be involved here. Who is to say this isn't a bioweapon at ground zero?"
During the Clinton years CDC was in the news constantly, solving problems here and there, they even figured out guns were a disease problem.
I haven't heard from them much during the Bush years, I hope they went back to solving problems with diseases and such.
Mumps would be a rather pointless and somewhat idiotic bioweapons agent. It certainly would not be worth the risk and expense to develop and deliver.
But she added, "Our law does not allow us to identify entities associated with outbreaks."
Read that statement very carefully...as she is trying to tell you something. This woman ONCE, at the beginning of Iowa's five year (so far) whooping cough epidemic (which is so severe as to cause total shutdowns of entire high schools), actually said in the DM Register that it was caused by un-vaccinated illegals. She is honest; she knows the problem; but is not allowed to directly communicate it for political reasons.
Great, then they'll never get a handle on it. We had to furnish proof of vaccinations, and in some cases, recent boosters, for our kids at every school level, including college.
I guess that's an offense against civil rights nowadays, as we rapidly descend to third-world standards.
That would be my guess, the illegal aliens are responsible for bringing in TB they probably brought in the mumps.
Maybe it's a long-term strategy hoping for extinction of Anglo-Saxons via male sterility and takeover by immigration of Muslims. Devious and very series.
--At 34, my immune system seems to be immune to virtually everything now. I haven't been ill in 3 years, and during adulthood entirely, I have been ill maybe 4 times.
Don't count on it. When I was young my sister got mumps, measles, and chicken pox. I never got any of them. Then when I was around 34 my son brought home chicken pox and I got it. It was awful.
See my tagline. So does invincible ignorance. If you will chat medicine then please study it a bit - and not homeopathic alternative clap-trap.
"Our law does not allow us to identify entities associated with outbreaks."
It seems to me it used to.
"She is honest; she knows the problem; but is not allowed to directly communicate it for political reasons."
Which leaves her participating in the dishonesty.
She should simply tell the truth.
Antibodies seem to get weak over time. I left the AF at 30 and felt indestructable with about 12 immunizations. Now at 50, I seem to catch every upper-respiratory infection people bring to work with them via their kids. So I started updating my shots. The next 2 are TB and diptheria.
All these antibodies working together seem to also prevent similar infections to the target disease.
Iowa is a Democrat run, liberal state which is painted up to be a conservative "mainline" state. Vilsack and his democrat minions have infected EVERY part of the state.
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