Posted on 10/23/2009 10:26:36 AM PDT by tricky_k_1972
Updated: Friday, 23 Oct 2009, 11:30 AM EDT
Published : Thursday, 22 Oct 2009, 4:55 PM EDT
By Luke Funk
MYFOXNY.COM - New York City's Health and Mental Hygiene Department is warning doctors about a mumps outbreak in Brooklyn.
The cases started turning up in late August.
The outbreak began among children from Borough Park who attended summer camp in Upstate New York. Now, a similar outbreak is being reported in New Jersey
So far, 57 confirmed or probable cases have been identified in New York. Cases of mumps have continued to occur in Borough Park since the start of the school year.
The victims have ranged in age from 1 to 42 years of age. Most of the cases are among children ages 10-15 years old.
Mumps is an illness characterized by acute swelling of the salivary gland lasting two or more days. The illness can cause deafness and encephalitis.
A person can be infected for two days before symptoms appear.
The health department is telling people who suspect they have mumps to stay home for five days.
Children who are not fully vaccinated against mumps are the highest risk of infection.
All suspected of cases of mumps should be reported to the Bureau of Immunization at 212-676-2288.
How this got started is related in another article:
Mumps Outbreak Hits More than 70 in New York, New Jersey
The relevant section:
New York officials report that the outbreak originated in a child who traveled to Britain and then attended summer camp in upper New York State...
Ok so it started in Britan, how did the Brits get it we find that info and more from this article:
Surge in mumps cases causes alarm
New figures released by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) have revealed a sharp rise in cases of the viral illness from January to July this year.
In Suffolk, there has been a jump of 80%, with 27 recorded cases in that time period compared with 15 cases in 2008.
And in the East of England the rise is 243% from 467 confirmed cases this year compared with just 136 in the same period in 2008.
Hamid Mahgoub, a consultant in communicable diseases for Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire HPA, said the recent outbreak was “worrying” and reiterated the need for children to be vaccinated.
He said mumps can lead to some very serious complications including meningitis and inflammation of the brain, which can be life-threatening.
“People can be completely protected against if we succeed in all the community being vaccinated with this very effective safe vaccine, which also protects against measles and rubella,” he said.
“The MMR jab is very important, I cannot emphasise it enough.
“We need about 95% of the community vaccinated to ensure the virus does not get the chance to be transmitted.”
Latest figures reveal that, in Suffolk, 85% of two-year-olds are immunised compared to 84% in the East of England.
For five-year-olds in Suffolk 80% of the age group are vaccinated compared to 78% in the eastern region.
When uptake of the vaccine is low outbreaks are likely to happen due to the contagious nature of both mumps and measles.
With a high proportion of the community not protected the illnesses can multiply at an alarming rate.
Dr Mahgoub urged parents to make sure their children have had both doses of the MMR jab as soon as possible.
He added: “It will not only protect against the surge we are seeing at the moment in mumps but also against measles and the serious complications that can arise from mumps.
“It is quite worrying. We really do not want to see this virus being transmitted when we know this can be stopped through the use of this safe and effective vaccine.”
Get that line 95% immunization is required to confer group immunity, so when you read in the second article that "At least 75 percent of the Brooklyn victims were fully immunized... you can see how that is misleading, it makes you think that:
Hey it doesn't matter if my kids immunized or not, see, these shots don't accomplish anything, and did you here how it can cause all these other problems. I'm not getting my kid that devil shot.
You anti-immunization nut balls are going to get us all killed.
I totally agree with what you are saying, but in this case illegal immigration had nothing to do with it.
Again, I agree with what you are saying, but what would the death rate have been without vaccination, what percentage of the population was vaccinated, what was the death rate among the un-vaccinated population or the population centers with less than 95% vaccination and therefore not receiving the group or herd benefit?
Of all the common childhood diseases, mumps was my favorite. I had no fever, didn’t itch all over, got to stay home from school and all I felt was some swelling in my cheeks. Plus, the name of the disease didn’t sound as scary as “measles” or “polio” or “chicken pox”. I got to eat ice cream. I had a blast for a few days.
Yes, I know there are more severe health consequences but, sufficiently quarantined from the rest of the kids, it was a rather fun illness.
The first vaccine most kids get is MMR.
So were they not vaccinated or is the vaccine ineffective over time.
Whooping cough vaccine does not provide life long immunity.
It would make sense that Britain would have a higher incidence of children without the vaccine since the original now debunked study linking autism and Thimerasal originated there.
MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed data on autism
He lied on his research to gin up funds which was discovered after all other studies that attempted to duplicate his results failed.
Somebody’s got to say it.
There’s a holdup in the Bronx!
Brooklyn’s broken out in mumps!
I had the mumps as a child and I don't remember it being that big of a deal. Does it really kill that many people?
Next time, try a pickle.
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