Mumps outbreak concerns health officials

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Public health officials said on
Thursday they were concerned about an outbreak of mumps in the
Midwest and said some people may have been infected on airline
flights.

More than 600 people were reported sick in Iowa with the
virus, once a common childhood illness but virtually eradicated
with widespread use of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

“The state of Iowa has been experiencing a large mumps
outbreak that began in December 2005,” the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.

The Iowa Department of Public Health said it was
investigating 605 cases.

“This outbreak has spread across Iowa, and mumps activity,
possibly linked to the Iowa outbreak, is under investigation in
six neighboring states, including Illinois (four cases), Kansas
(33 cases), Minnesota (one case), Missouri (four cases),
Nebraska (43 cases), and Wisconsin (four cases),” the CDC said.

Mumps is an infection of the salivary glands caused by a
virus. It causes unpleasant illness including fever, headache,
and swelling of the glands around the jaw.

It can sometimes cause more serious complications including
meningitis, encephalitis, inflammation of the testicles or
ovaries, inflammation of the pancreas and permanent deafness.

It is transmitted by coughing and sneezing and is “about as
contagious as influenza,” the CDC said. People can pass it
along from three days before they are ill.

The CDC said it was tracking two people who took nine
flights in April and asked anyone showing symptoms of mumps to
report to state health officials if they had been on the
flights. The CDC has been using a new system to track travelers
who may pass viruses on airplanes.

Penny Hitchcock, an infectious disease expert at the
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Center for
Biosecurity, said the CDC had not explained fully why it was
worried about the airline travelers.

“Warning the general public about the dangers of acquiring
infection from air travel is arguably irresponsible, unless
supported by compelling epidemiological evidence,” Hitchcock
said in an e-mail.

Other researchers at the Center have questioned CDC’s plans
for monitoring international travelers in case of a pandemic of
H5N1 bird flu.