Mumps Strikes 245, Puzzling Iowa Officials

NY Times ^ | April 1, 2006 | GRETCHEN RUETHLING

[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..."

[LurkedLongEnough]

"Our law does not allow us to identify entities associated with outbreaks."

I believe your general idea is right, but I thought about it another way too. I put the emphasis on the word "identify" -- it's a statement about identifying who they already know was a vector.

There is something to be said for privacy of an individual's medical records. However, this privacy should end if the person is a contagious disease carrier, just like it ends for many sex offenders.

For our current fed-heavy health care laws, thank Hillary Clinton and her HIPAA brainchild. Someone has to come forth from the federal government and ok the release of the information "for the public good" when they d@mn feel like it.

[Robert A Cook PE]

True, true.

How many of these WORK CLOSELY WITH (unminimized) illegal aliens, EMPLOY (unminimized) illegal aliens, ARE THEMSELVES (unminimized) illegal aliens, or RECEIVED FOOD or other unsterilized material FROM (unminimized) illegal aliens?

[theFIRMbss]

>Mumps Strikes 245, Puzzling Iowa Officials

March/April 2006 The Knowledge Biotechnology’s advance could give malefactors the ability to manipulate life processes--and even affect human behavior. By Mark Williams Editor's note: Conscious of the controversial nature of this article, Technology Review asked Allison Macfarlane, a research associate in the Science, Technology, and Global Security Working Group in MIT's Program in Science, Technology, and Society, to rebut its argument: see "Assessing the Threat." We were also careful to elide any recipes for developing a biological weapon. Such details as do appear have been published before, mainly in scientific journals. Last year, a likable and accomplished scientist named Serguei Popov, who for nearly two decades developed genetically engineered biological weapons for the Soviet Union, crossed the Potomac River to speak at a conference on bioterrorism in Washington, DC. ...

[Gamecock]

My gut reaction was religious nuts whose parents didn't have them immunized, then I read the article:

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.

Bad vaccine? New strain? It will be interesting to follow this....

[Doc Savage]

Well they could vaccinate with Mumpsvax from Merck,....oh, wait, the trial lawyers are currently raping Merck and forcing them into bankruptcy so there won't be any vaccines,...what's that you say???? All 245 cases are the kids of trial lawyers raping America???????? Well who would have thunk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bean Counter]

There's probably no mystery at all here. It's either some infected illegal who brought it in from somewhere else, or some wackadoo who doesn't believe in innoculations for their children.

[webstersII]

"There's probably no mystery at all here. It's either some infected illegal who brought it in from somewhere else, or some wackadoo who doesn't believe in innoculations for their children."

Next time you might want to read the article before making such assumptions.

"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."

Another article said that in addition, 14% of those infected had had one vaccination shot. So, a total of 80% of those infected have had at least one vaccination.

When 20% of those infected did NOT have the vaccine and 80% DID have either one or two shots then it's time to find a new vaccine. This one is not proving to be valuable against this strain. Viruses can mutate pretty quickly so the health department shouldn't put too much confidence in the existing vaccine.

[webstersII]

Can someone explain the comments by the person from the healthcare dept.:

"It's working at a 95 percent efficacy rate, which is darn good," Ms. Quinlisk said of the vaccine, "

given that the majority of the kids actually had the vaccine:

" 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."

Where does she get the 95% number? Is that historical data on the vaccine? If so, it looks like this is a different strain.

[neverdem]

The strain is the one that caused an epidemic of about 56,000 cases in the United Kingdom last year.

The population of the United Kingdom was 59,834,300 in July 2004 according to the estimate in Wikipedia, which yields a population incidence of a little under 1 in a 1,000.

According to the CDC, Approximately 3,000 cases were reported annually in 1983–1985 (1.3–1.55 cases per 100,000 population, aka incidence) in the U.S. Since 1989, the number of reported mumps cases has steadily declined, from 5,712 cases to a total of 258 cases in 2004 in the whole U.S. versus the current 245 just in Iowa. (Both of those links are from the same pdf link.)

Let me make a wild @ss guess; it's mutated, and the current MMR vaccine doesn't cover it.

[RJS1950]

Any relationship between those with the infection and areas where there are meatpacking operations?

[neverdem]

Any relationship between those with the infection and areas where there are meatpacking operations?

But she added, "Our law does not allow us to identify entities associated with outbreaks."

It looks like they can't find out and/or disclose it.

[Born Conservative]

Ping

[Born Conservative]

so there won't be any vaccines

That's good; then we can FINALLY get rid of Autism /extreme sarcasm off

[Born Conservative]

IIRC, there were many in Britain who did not get the MMR "jab" because of fears of autism. With increased numbers of unvaccinated people, the diseases started back up, and now, here we are....

[Born Conservative]

Ping

[null and void]

Yeah. Glad you know the subtext. I was wondering...

[LucyT]

When I had the mumps, the dr admitted me to the hospital for two weeks! I don't know why.

[Keith in Iowa]

One would think the "newspaper Iowa Depends Upon"...the Des Moines Register (aka: Red Star & Sickle) would be all over this - but the only story they have about mumps in the last 7 days is the toll it's taking on the small college spring sports season. It seems track & softball teams from Loras College of Dubuque, were turned away from Washington U, St. Louis.

[GOPJ]

Don't you think the CDC should be involved here. Who is to say this isn't a bioweapon at ground zero?

Or more likely someone doing research on bio-spread. Here's hoping it's our guys...

[kara37]

I know I am going to start a war here, but I have to say it.

I wonder how many people know that some vaccines are made with aborted fetuses. (Well, really stem cell lines) Rubella is one of them.

Do you believe in stem cell research?

Will you not vacinate your children?

Something to think about.