- LINCOLN, Neb. - Nebraska, which is part of an nine-state mumps epidemic,
is now reporting 110 cases of the disease in 22 counties, health officials
said Monday. Thirty-two of those cases are confirmed.
-
- "Currently, most of our mumps cases
are in southeastern Nebraska," said Dr. Anne O'Keefe, epidemiologist
for the state Health and Human Services System.
-
- She said most of the cases are among
people ages 10 to 18 and 35 to 45. "However, we're seeing cases in
children as young as 2 and adults up to age 64," she said.
-
- The mumps epidemic is the nation's first
in 20 years.
-
-
- Some 600 suspected cases have been reported
in Iowa, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
-
- There are also cases reported in Kansas,
Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
-
- Mumps is a viral infection of the salivary
glands. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches and swelling of
the glands close to the jaw. It can cause serious complications, including
meningitis, damage to the testicles and deafness.
-
- Mumps is spread by coughing and sneezing.
-
- No deaths have been reported from the
current epidemic.
-
- A two-dose mumps vaccine is recommended
for all children and is considered highly "- but not completely "-
effective against the illness.
-
- According to HHS, Nebraskans ages 30
to 65 years old are the most at risk to catch the disease because they
probably never were vaccinated or had the disease.
-
- Nebraska law for years has required two
doses of the mumps vaccine before a child can enter school or college.
Thus Nebraskans under the age of 30 who followed the K-12 and college entry
requirements probably have been vaccinated.
-
- Nebraskans over the age of 65 are likely
to have natural immunity to the virus. Many in this age group had mumps
as a child.
-
- Two infected airline passengers may have
helped spread Iowa's mumps epidemic.
-
- Iowa health officials last week identified
two people who were potentially infectious when they were traveling in
late March and early April.
-
- The CDC said the present outbreak is
the nation's biggest epidemic of mumps since 269 cases were reported in
Douglas County, Kan., from October 1988 to April 1989.
-
- A mumps vaccine was introduced in 1967.
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- Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD
- Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
- Univ of West Indies
-
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases"
message board at:
- http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php
- Also my new website:
- http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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