Ag Chemicals?? Mumps Epidemic Spreads; More Vaccine Is Promised - a role for agricultural chemicals?

[Guest guest]

Similar conjecture with so-called West Nile Virus, Polio, Bird Flu, and

others............

See Jim West's pages

http://www.geocities.com/harpub

Sheri

The following map delineates where wells were sampled in Iowa and does not

indicate toxin levels. Nonetheless, the map illustrates concern with

agricultural chemicals in Iowa. Note the map in the mumps article as we

keep in mind that higher toxin levels are associated with impaired

immunity. Have agricultural chemicals in human bodies contributed to the

mumps epidemic? Probably, no one knows, but the relationships among

toxins, impaired immunity, and an epidemic merit consideration.

* * * *

USDA: Agricultural Chemicals - Occurrence and fate of chemicals used for

agriculture

<http://toxics.usgs.gov/topics/agchemicals.html>http://toxics.usgs.gov/topic

s/agchemicals.html

<http://ia.water.usgs.gov/nawqa/factsheets/dana_fs_images/fig1.gif>http://ia

..water.usgs.gov/nawqa/factsheets/dana_fs_images/fig1.gif

* * * * * * * * * * * *

April 20, 2006

Mumps Epidemic Spreads; More Vaccine Is Promised

By NINA SIEGAL

<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/20/health/20mumps.html>http://www.nytimes.co

m/2006/04/20/health/20mumps.html

IOWA CITY, April 19 In the largest mumps outbreak in the United States in

more than 20 years, almost 1,000 people have contracted the disease in the

Midwest, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta

announced Wednesday.

The epidemic began in Iowa, where the State Department of Public Health has

reported 815 suspected or confirmed cases. It has spread to at least seven

other states.

So far, no one has died from the disease, a flulike viral infection that

causes swelling of the neck and chin and usually lasts 5 to 10 days. Twenty

people have been hospitalized, said Dr. L. Gerberding, director of

the Centers for Disease Control.

Because of the effectiveness of the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella,

introduced in 1967, most people think of the mumps as a childhood illness

that had been eradicated in the United States. But the current outbreak is

challenging those assumptions.

About half of the cases in Iowa involve college-age students, most of whom

have been vaccinated, said the state epidemiologist, Dr. Quinlisk.

Federal and state health investigators have not pinpointed the origin of

the epidemic, but the first cases were identified in December on a college

campus in either Iowa City or Dubuque. State officials said they would not

name the campus because such information was medically privileged.

Dr. Gerberding said the disease had spread quickly because of the dense

concentration of students in affected cities and because the vaccine is not

perfect. It has about an 80 percent efficacy rate for people who have been

inoculated with one dose, and a rate of about 90 percent for people who

have received the recommended two doses.

" We have absolutely no information to suggest that there's a problem with

the vaccine, " Dr. Gerberding said. " What's going on here is basically a

number of people who haven't received both doses, coupled together with

people who have received the vaccine but are susceptible anyway, living in

crowded conditions like college dormitories or mixing up with other

students at spring break or during holidays, and setting up a cascade of

transmission that's going to take a while to curtail. "

In recent years there have been 250 to 300 mumps cases annually in the

United States, said Dr. Jane Seward, acting deputy director of the division

of viral diseases for the C.D.C. The last significant outbreak was in 1989,

when Kansas had 269 cases. This time, the states with the most cases, after

Iowa, are Kansas, Illinois and Nebraska.

Chase Hardin, 19, a freshman at the University of Iowa, in Iowa City, had a

stiff neck in early March, but did not think anything of it until " it

looked like someone had stuck an orange in the side of my neck. "

" I had no clue that I could get that, " said Mr. Hardin, who was vaccinated

as a child. " I thought it was something of the past. "

F. Cassa, a University of Iowa freshman, got the mumps a few

weeks ago, along with four or five other students on her dormitory floor.

She said she had heard of about a dozen cases in her 900-student dormitory,

Burge Hall.

" The dorms are so like close quarters, " Ms. Cassa said. " You're around so

many people, and you don't think about what you're touching and what you're

drinking, and people share a lot of stuff. "

Since December, the university's student health service has confirmed 55

cases, said , associate director of student health.

Because of the wide range of symptoms, from achy limbs to swelling,

officials did not initially consider mumps a possibility.

" Now we're testing a lot of students, even with mild symptoms, especially

if the students say they've been in contact with someone who's had it, " Ms.

said. Students who have symptoms are told to isolate themselves for

at least five days.

Officials say it could be worse. " We're seeing really very low attack

rates, " Dr. Seward said. " If we didn't have the high two-dose coverage,

we'd be seeing thousands of cases, or tens of thousands of cases. "

Dr. Gerberding said the main step the C.D.C. was taking was to provide an

additional 50,000 doses of the mumps vaccine, half donated by Merck.

The Iowa Public Health Department is trying to contain the outbreak through

public education and inoculation.

" It's hard to say what comes next, " said Dr. Quinlisk, the state

epidemiologist. " When mumps was around, it tended to be a winter and spring

disease, and it tended to go down in the summer. We'll be waiting to see if

Mother Nature gives us a little help. "

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

<http://toxics.usgs.gov/topics/agchemicals.html>http://toxics.usgs.gov/topic

s/agchemicals.html

Investigations and Research Activities

* <http://toxics.usgs.gov/regional/emc/animal_feeding.html>Animal Feeding

Operations as a Source of Antibiotics in the Environment

* <http://toxics.usgs.gov/regional/emc/aquaculture.html>Aquaculture as a

Source of Antibiotics in the Environment

* <http://toxics.usgs.gov/regional/emc/antibiotics.html>Antibiotics in the

Spring Flush that Occurs in Midwestern Streams

* <http://toxics.usgs.gov/regional/emc/swine_waste.html>Distribution of

Pathogenic and Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in a Swine Waste Storage

Structure

* <http://toxics.usgs.gov/interagency/msea.html>Management Systems

Evaluation Areas, Upper Midwest (Corn Belt) Completed

* Transport of Herbicides in Streams --

<http://toxics.usgs.gov/sites/cedar_river.html>Cedar River, Iowa Completed

* <http://toxics.usgs.gov/regional/mid-atlantic.html>Nonpoint-Source

Ground-Water Contamination in Relation to Land Use Completed

* Agricultural Chemicals in Ground Water --

<http://toxics.usgs.gov/sites/ag_chemicals.html>Plains, Georgia Completed

* <http://wwwbrr.cr.usgs.gov/projects/EC_biogeochemistry/Hypox.htm>Fate of

Nitrogen During Transport Through Agriculturally Impacted Rivers

* <http://water.usgs.gov/nrp/jharvey/site/ttnsaa.html>Transport and

Transformation of Nutrients in Channels and Floodplains

*

<http://water.usgs.gov/nrp/proj.bib/microbiology/mississippibasin_in.html>Th

e Fate and Transport of Agriculturally derived Nitrogen in the Midwestern

United States

* <http://water.usgs.gov/nrp/proj.bib/coplen.html>Physical Chemistry of

Stable Isotope Fractionation in Hydrologic Processes

* <http://toxics.usgs.gov/hypoxia/>Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico and

Related USGS Activities

Fact Sheets

*

<http://www-ks.cr.usgs.gov/Kansas/pubs/fact-sheets/fs.134-98.html>Herbicides

in Midwestern Reservoir Outflows, 1992-93, USGS Fact Sheet 134-98

*

<http://www-ks.cr.usgs.gov/Kansas/pubs/fact-sheets/fs.076-98.html>Herbicides

in Ground Water of the Midwest--A Regional Study of Shallow Aquifers,

1991-94, USGS Fact Sheet FS-076-98

* <http://water.usgs.gov/pubs/FS/FS-046-98/>Reconnaissance for

Sulfonylurea Herbicides in Waters of the Midwestern USA: An Example of

Collaboration Between the Public and Private Sectors, USGS Fact Sheet

FS-046-98

*

<http://ks.water.usgs.gov/Kansas/pubs/fact-sheets/fs.022-98.html>Occurrence

of Cotton Pesticides in Surface Water of the Mississippi Embayment, USGS

Fact Sheet FS-022-98

*

<http://ks.water.usgs.gov/Kansas/pubs/fact-sheets/fs.181-97.html>Herbicides

in Rainfall Across the Midwestern and Northeastern United States, 1990-91,

USGS Fact Sheet FS-181-97

* <http://ia.water.usgs.gov/nawqa/factsheets/fs-116-97.html>Agricultural

Chemicals in Iowa's Ground Water, 1982-95 -- What are the Trends?, USGS

Fact Sheet FS-116-97

* <http://pubs.water.usgs.gov/fs-135-00>Nitrogen in the Mississippi

Basin--Estimating Sources and Predicting Flux to the Gulf of Mexico, USGS

Fact Sheet FS-135-00

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

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