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Officials Keep Eye Out for Mumps: Cases Have Cropped Up in Border States

Posted on: Tuesday, 18 April 2006, 12:00 CDT

By David Blackburn, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

Apr. 18--The mumps outbreak ravaging Iowa and the upper Midwest has resulted in cases being reported in three states bordering Kentucky, including Indiana.

It's caused local and state health officials to keep a wary eye on the viral infection typically found in children but that now seems to be targeting young adults -- though there have been no Kentucky cases so far.

Cases "are cropping up again" across the country, which is not uncommon in small instances, said Judy Gilmore, director of nursing at the Green River District Health Department, on Monday.

But since the first of the year, more than 800 cases of mumps -- including 600-plus in Iowa -- have been reported nationwide.

National experts think the close quarters of airline travel might have helped spread the disease.

"Something is not working as it should. That's a problem," Gilmore said. "We're doing everything we know to do."

That included forwarding an advisory from the state Department for Public Health to physicians and public walk-in clinics on Friday.

With mumps cases reported in border states, the public health advisory said medical professionals could start seeing infected patients.

The advisory urged facilities to determine if health care workers are immune from mumps.

"We just wanted to give them a heads-up," said Dr. Robert Brawley, chief of the department's Communicable Diseases Branch of the Division of Epidemiology and Health Planning.

The advisory urged documenting evidence of immunity of health care workers born in or after 1957, when mumps wasn't often circulating in communities.

The suggested means were:

-- Two instances of vaccines, preferably MMR (mumps, measles and rubella, or German measles).

-- A laboratory blood test showing immunity to mumps.

-- Proof of physician-diagnosed mumps.

The cause of the recent outbreak isn't known, but there is concern since a high percentage of those who have gotten sick had been previously vaccinated.

Brawley said theories include that those who were vaccinated didn't develop an immunity or, if they got a booster shot, their immunity faded over time.

"It's not a perfect vaccine," Brawley said.

Owensboro pediatrician Dr. Don Neel agreed.

The MMR vaccine and booster are given about ages 1 and 4, respectively, he said.

"We hope that gives everybody an immunity," Neel said.

Some of those infected now might now have gotten the second shot, though, he said.

"Of course it's concerning if someone has been immunized and for them to get it," said Dr. Khaled Jouja, a Mayfair Avenue specialist in infectious diseases.

An early sign of mumps can include a fever or chills, but the telltale symptom is a swelling of the jaws caused by an infection of the salivary gland in front of and below the ears, Jouja said.

Mumps in adolescent boys or young men can lead to sterility if the infection spreads to the testicles, Jouja said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Messenger-Inquirer

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