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Saturday, April 01, 2006

Mumps on the March: There's a mumps outbreak in Iowa:

An outbreak of mumps is sweeping across Iowa, the first in nearly 20 years, and it's puzzling health officials and worrying parents.

``We have probably, at this point, what we would call an epidemic of mumps,'' said state epidemiologist Dr. Patricia Quinlisk.

As of Thursday, the latest report available, 245 confirmed, probable and suspected cases of mumps had been reported to the Iowa Department of Public Health this year.

One rarely sees mumps in this country. They don't yet know why or how the mumps got started in Iowa, but it's interesting that in most recent cases in the U.S., they were imported from the U.K., where many people have a mumps-shot phobia thanks largely to this doctor.
Dr. Crippen has some things to say about that.

posted by Sydney on 4/01/2006 09:01:00 PM 2 comments

2 Comments:

Not so fast,

These are immunized kids, and the strain with which they were infected appears to be one that is "covered" by the vaccine.

As the epidemiologist in the article says, the vaccine is only 95% effective.

Jump on Wakefield and the non-immunizers all you like, and I'll join you, but I'm not sure the Iowa problem is their fault.

best,

Flea

By Big Lebowski Store, at 7:37 AM

Flea,

I agree. And I did mention that the source of the Iowa cluster isn't yet known. However, the article mentions several other clusters throughout the years in different regions that were all brought over from contact with the UK. That's what I found most interesting. And it may turn out yet that this one was introduced by contact with the disease from the same place.

By Sydney, at 8:23 AM