Mumps outbreak raging in Iowa, 8 other Midwest states

April 14, 2006

http://tinyurl.com/s3to8 This will be Offit's point... "Experts hope the relatively high U.S. vaccination rates will contain the outbreak. The tens of thousands of cases in Britain have been blamed on problems with that country's vaccination program, and concerns among some parents that childhood vaccines may increase the risk of autism, which left a significant proportion of the population unvaccinated." Mumps outbreak raging in Iowa, 8 other Midwest states Rob Stein, Washington Post Thursday, April 13, 2006 Printable Version Email This Article Local, state and federal health experts are urgently trying to contain a mumps outbreak raging across Iowa that has now spread to at least eight other Midwestern states. At least 515 mumps cases have been reported in Iowa this year, far outpacing the five cases the state usually sees in a year and the 200 to 300 that typically occur nationally. The epidemic, the largest since a 1988 outbreak in Kansas, shows no sign of slowing, with at least 100 more cases in Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Illinois. As health officials work to break the chain of transmission of the viral infection, disease detectives are trying to puzzle out what is causing it. Cases appear to be concentrated among young adults who are otherwise healthy. "Why Iowa, and why now? We really don't know," said Bellini of the federal Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "There are a lot of unknowns." Among them: Does the mumps vaccine fail to "take" in more people than had been thought? Does its protection wane? Is the virus causing this outbreak less susceptible to the vaccine for some reason, or is it more infectious? "This shows us once again that the world is a very small place," said Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University. "We have to remain on guard, even about diseases we usually rarely see anymore in this country." To try to keep the outbreak from spreading further, the CDC announced Wednesday that officials are trying to track down 222 airline passengers who sat near two people from Iowa who developed the mumps after traveling on nine flights between March 26 and April 2. One flew from Tucson to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, stopping in

Arkansas and St. Louis. The second, a 51-year-old woman on a trip to lobby the Iowa congressional delegation, flew from Waterloo, Iowa, to Washington and back, stopping in Detroit and Minneapolis. About 17 people who came in contact with the second passenger on Capitol Hill have been given vaccine shots as a precaution, health officials said. "The states where these passengers traveled and landed we'll be watching closely and putting prevention and control activities in place if they start to see some cases," said Jane Seward of the CDC. In the states that already have cases, officials are alerting the public to the symptoms in the hope that anyone who has been infected can be identified quickly and isolated. "We're doing everything we can to get out in front of this outbreak and try to get it stopped," said Quinlisk, Iowa's state

epidemiologist. "Mumps can produce severe complications, and we're trying to do whatever we can to prevent them from happening." About a dozen patients in Iowa have been hospitalized, including one who was treated for encephalitis, but all have recovered. Officials speculate that the epidemic might have been set off by someone from Britain, which has been experiencing a large mumps outbreak for several years. "We suspect that there was some importation into Iowa, and initially perhaps it wasn't recognized immediately because physicians don't see mumps much anymore," Seward said. "That's how these things can get going." The virus in the Iowa outbreak is the same strain as that in Britain. But officials have not yet identified the first Iowa case. Experts hope the relatively high U.S. vaccination rates will

contain the outbreak. The tens of thousands of cases in Britain have been blamed on problems with that country's vaccination program, and concerns among some parents that childhood vaccines may increase the risk of autism, which left a significant proportion of the population unvaccinated.

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April 14, 2006

[PROVE Note: If you've been wondering what the CDC has been up to with the recent highly sensationalized mumps cases in Iowa and neighboring states, this little blurb in a Reuters article hints at the CDC's ulterior motive in trying to make a stink about the airline travelers. They are trying to increase their power through misleading information and irrational fear. MSNBC just reported that on the further interviewing of most people with cases - the majority had been fully vaccinated (MSNBC.com - "What's causing the mumps outbreak?") Here is yet another example of vaccines not working as the public had been told they would yet the CDC keeps making a public issue about two people on an airplane and avoiding the question why the vaccine didn't work and avoiding even more the fact that mumps is a mild illness for the vast majority of the population. Be vigilant here and really watch what they are doing because the CDC moves in baby steps to gain power and funding - and they do it all through irresponsibly causing people to be unnecessarily afraid. The reality is people are wising up to the fact that vaccines cause harm to many people and they don't work in many more. What better way is there for the CDC to force them on the public who doesn't want them than to work in incremental steps to require them for air travel?]

Mumps outbreak raging in Iowa, 8 other Midwest states

http://tinyurl.com/s3to8

This will be Offit's point...

"Experts hope the relatively high U.S. vaccination rates will contain the outbreak. The tens of thousands of cases in Britain have been blamed on problems with that country's vaccination program, and concerns among some parents that childhood vaccines may increase the risk of autism, which left a significant proportion of the population unvaccinated."

Mumps outbreak raging in Iowa, 8 other Midwest states

Rob Stein, Washington Post

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Printable Version Email This Article

Local, state and federal health experts are urgently trying to contain a mumps outbreak raging across Iowa that has now spread to at least eight other Midwestern states.

At least 515 mumps cases have been reported in Iowa this year, far outpacing the five cases the state usually sees in a year and the 200 to 300 that typically occur nationally. The epidemic, the largest since a 1988 outbreak in Kansas, shows no sign of slowing, with at least 100 more cases in Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Illinois.

As health officials work to break the chain of transmission of the viral infection, disease detectives are trying to puzzle out what is causing it. Cases appear to be concentrated among young adults who are otherwise healthy.

"Why Iowa, and why now? We really don't know," said Bellini of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "There are a lot of unknowns."

Among them: Does the mumps vaccine fail to "take" in more people than had been thought? Does its protection wane? Is the virus causing this outbreak less susceptible to the vaccine for some reason, or is it more infectious?

"This shows us once again that the world is a very small place," said Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University. "We have to remain on guard, even about diseases we usually rarely see anymore in this country."

To try to keep the outbreak from spreading further, the CDC announced Wednesday that officials are trying to track down 222 airline passengers who sat near two people from Iowa who developed the mumps after traveling on nine flights between March 26 and April 2.

One flew from Tucson to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, stopping in Arkansas and St. Louis. The second, a 51-year-old woman on a trip to lobby the Iowa congressional delegation, flew from Waterloo, Iowa, to Washington and back, stopping in Detroit and Minneapolis.

About 17 people who came in contact with the second passenger on Capitol Hill have been given vaccine shots as a precaution, health officials said.

"The states where these passengers traveled and landed we'll be watching closely and putting prevention and control activities in place if they start to see some cases," said Jane Seward of the CDC.

In the states that already have cases, officials are alerting the public to the symptoms in the hope that anyone who has been infected can be identified quickly and isolated.

"We're doing everything we can to get out in front of this outbreak and try to get it stopped," said Quinlisk, Iowa's state epidemiologist. "Mumps can produce severe complications, and we're trying to do whatever we can to prevent them from happening."

About a dozen patients in Iowa have been hospitalized, including one who was treated for encephalitis, but all have recovered.

Officials speculate that the epidemic might have been set off by someone from Britain, which has been experiencing a large mumps outbreak for several years.

"We suspect that there was some importation into Iowa, and initially perhaps it wasn't recognized immediately because physicians don't see mumps much anymore," Seward said. "That's how these things can get going."

The virus in the Iowa outbreak is the same strain as that in Britain. But officials have not yet identified the first Iowa case.

Experts hope the relatively high U.S. vaccination rates will contain the outbreak. The tens of thousands of cases in Britain have been blamed on problems with that country's vaccination program, and concerns among some parents that childhood vaccines may increase the risk of autism, which left a significant proportion of the population unvaccinated.

Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates.

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April 14, 2006

Really? Was there tens of thousands affected in the UK? Where are those numbers quoted? Did any die?

Ange

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