US mumps cases top 1,100

By Lisa Richwine

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of mumps cases has risen
to 1,100 in eight Midwestern states and prompted the federal
government to distribute vaccines from its stockpile to stop
the outbreak’s spread, health officials said on Wednesday.

The outbreak is the largest mumps epidemic in the United
States in more than 20 years, the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention said.

Most are in Iowa, where 815 cases have been recorded, the
CDC said.

An additional 350 mumps cases have been reported in
Minnesota, Kansas, Illinois, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Missouri and
Oklahoma, officials said. Investigators are reviewing possible
cases in seven other states that were not named.

Mumps usually is not serious and rarely kills. None of the
cases in the recent outbreak have been fatal.

Once a common childhood illness, mumps was virtually
eradicated with widespread use of the measles, mumps and
rubella (MMR) vaccine.

But the vaccine is effective in only about 90 percent of
people, which could partly explain the recent outbreak, CDC
Director Julie Gerberding said.

“Although this is a very good vaccine, it’s not perfect,”
Gerberding said at a news conference.

Many college-age students may have received just one of the
two recommended doses when they were young, and therefore may
not have the same level of immunity as others, she said.

Federal officials urged students, people who work in school
or university settings and health-care workers who did not get
both doses to get a second dose.

The CDC is sending 25,000 doses of MMR vaccine to Iowa for
that purpose, Gerberding said. Drug maker Merck & Co. Inc. has
donated an additional 25,000 doses for health officials to use
as they see fit.

Investigators do not yet know how many of the people
infected with mumps were vaccinated. So far, “we have
absolutely no information to suggest there’s a problem with the
vaccine,” Gerberding said.

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

Up to 10 percent of patients may develop encephalitis.
Other serious complications that sometimes occur include
meningitis, inflammation of the testicles, ovaries or pancreas,
or permanent deafness. There is no approved treatment.

The mumps virus is transmitted by coughing and sneezing.
Experts say it is about as infectious as influenza. People can
transmit mumps to others for three days before they have any
symptoms.

In the United States, an average of 265 mumps cases have
been reported each year since 2001. Mumps vaccinations started
in 1967.