Latest Mumps Stories

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science CorrespondentWASHINGTON -- Recent outbreaks of measles and whooping cough show how easily a rare or "eradicated" disease can flare up again, U.S. investigators said this week.Three people in Indiana were hospitalized last year after a 17-year-old girl carried measles back from Romania. It spread to 34 people because many in her community had refused to be vaccinated, a team at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.Their report on...

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Thirty child health experts warned on Tuesday that children may unnecessarily become ill and even die because parents have been "dangerously misled" over the risks of a triple measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. In an open letter, the doctors called on media, politicians and health professionals to "draw a line under the question of any association between MMR and autism" and insisted there is "overwhelming" evidence the shot is safe. "Misguided...

By Louis Charbonneau BERLIN (Reuters) - German health officials warned on Thursday of an alarming increase in measles infections, a childhood disease that can occasionally be deadly, and urged citizens to make sure children are vaccinated against the virus. The Robert Koch Institute, a state agency specializing in infectious diseases and public health, said the number of German cases of measles has jumped by tenfold to over 1,200 cases so far this year up from a total of 121 in 2004...

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...

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...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Two persons identified by the Iowa Department of Public Health as having mumps may have transmitted the disease to travelers on nine different commercial flights, health officials note in the April 14th issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In December 2005, a large outbreak of mumps began in Iowa, and 515 possible cases have been reported during 2006 as of April 10th....

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Two persons identified by the Iowa Department of Public Health as having mumps may have transmitted the disease to travelers on nine different commercial flights, health officials note in the April 14th issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.In December 2005, a large outbreak of mumps began in Iowa, and 515 possible cases have been reported during 2006 as of April 10th. Officials are...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chiron Corp. on Thursday said it is recalling and withdrawing its measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, MORUPAR, from Italian and developing world markets because it may be associated with a higher rate of adverse side effects than other such vaccines.The adverse events on which the recall and withdrawal are based are within a range of those commonly associated with vaccines, such as fever, allergic reactions and swelling of the glands, Chiron said.As a result of the recall...

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is to introduce a new routine vaccination for young children to help protect against meningitis, blood poisoning and pneumonia in a move it says will save lives and stop hundreds of children becoming ill each year. Britain's top doctor, Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson, said on Wednesday the jab, to be given in three doses at two months, four months and again at 13 months, would target pneumococcal disease, one of the most common bacterial causes of ear...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - An extensive review of studies examining outcomes after immunization with the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine has turned up no credible evidence that the vaccine is associated with autism or Crohn's disease or other serious illnesses. In 1998, a case series of 12 children was reported suggesting that the MMR vaccination triggered an autism-colitis syndrome. Even though the paper has since been retracted by most of the original authors, it prompted...