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Mumps outbreak concerns health officials

Posted on: Thursday, 13 April 2006, 21:53 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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