Snowy Owl
Retired in 2010, In Memoriam
State urges doctors, teachers to stay alert for mumps signs
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3721504
State health officials Monday alerted doctors, educators and county health agencies across Colorado to be on the lookout for mumps, which has spread across nine Midwestern states in the nation's worst outbreak in 20 years.
Since February, 605 people in 60 Iowa counties have gotten the virus, which causes fever and swelling or tenderness of the salivary glands in the cheeks and under the jaw.
Cases also have been reported in Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.
The health department advised that anyone who has the virus should stay home from work or school for nine days. Mumps is spread by coughing and sneezing.
Inconvenience is the biggest issue with the disease, said Dr. Ned Calonge, the state's chief medical officer.
"There are complications, but they are very rare," he said.
In severe and rare cases, mumps can cause inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, testicles or ovaries, and hearing loss.
So far, no cases have been reported in Colorado, although health officials are investigating several possible cases.
For now, all state health officials can do is make people aware of the signs and symptoms, said Deanna Herbert, spokeswoman for Northeast Colorado Health Department, which covers a six-county area bordering Nebraska and Kansas.
"What we do after that is wait," she said.
According to investigators with the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, many of those sick in the Midwest had been vaccinated against the virus.
However, the agency does not consider the cases evidence that adults should be revaccinated, said spokeswoman Lola Russell.
"This is not considered a matter of the vaccine waning. It could be that these cases are within that 5 to 10 percent of people" who never gain immunity even though vaccinated, she said.
Federal epidemiologists last Tuesday identified nine airplane flights - on Northwest and American Airlines - on which two of the infected patients may have spread the disease.
A student vacationing in Tucson traveled April 2 to Dallas, then took connecting flights to Fayetteville, Ark., St. Louis and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The second passenger flew on flights between Iowa, Minnesota, Detroit and Washington, D.C., in late March, CDC officials said.
The CDC said the present mumps outbreak is the nation's biggest since 269 cases were reported in Kansas in 1988.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3721504
State health officials Monday alerted doctors, educators and county health agencies across Colorado to be on the lookout for mumps, which has spread across nine Midwestern states in the nation's worst outbreak in 20 years.
Since February, 605 people in 60 Iowa counties have gotten the virus, which causes fever and swelling or tenderness of the salivary glands in the cheeks and under the jaw.
Cases also have been reported in Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.
The health department advised that anyone who has the virus should stay home from work or school for nine days. Mumps is spread by coughing and sneezing.
Inconvenience is the biggest issue with the disease, said Dr. Ned Calonge, the state's chief medical officer.
"There are complications, but they are very rare," he said.
In severe and rare cases, mumps can cause inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, testicles or ovaries, and hearing loss.
So far, no cases have been reported in Colorado, although health officials are investigating several possible cases.
For now, all state health officials can do is make people aware of the signs and symptoms, said Deanna Herbert, spokeswoman for Northeast Colorado Health Department, which covers a six-county area bordering Nebraska and Kansas.
"What we do after that is wait," she said.
According to investigators with the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, many of those sick in the Midwest had been vaccinated against the virus.
However, the agency does not consider the cases evidence that adults should be revaccinated, said spokeswoman Lola Russell.
"This is not considered a matter of the vaccine waning. It could be that these cases are within that 5 to 10 percent of people" who never gain immunity even though vaccinated, she said.
Federal epidemiologists last Tuesday identified nine airplane flights - on Northwest and American Airlines - on which two of the infected patients may have spread the disease.
A student vacationing in Tucson traveled April 2 to Dallas, then took connecting flights to Fayetteville, Ark., St. Louis and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The second passenger flew on flights between Iowa, Minnesota, Detroit and Washington, D.C., in late March, CDC officials said.
The CDC said the present mumps outbreak is the nation's biggest since 269 cases were reported in Kansas in 1988.