Apr. 20, 2006 - 20:14 MDT

WHEN ?

As a country we have great confidence in our medical profession and the science of medicine. Yet, are we as a people keeping up with the advances ?

This recent outbreak of mumps worries me. In this morning's Rocky Mountain News the is an article by Mike Wilson and Mike Stobbe of the Associated Press dealing with that situation. Quoted here in part:

DES MOINES, IOWA -- "In the worst outbreak in nearly 20 years, mumps cases are spilling out of Iowa, popping up in at least seven other Midwestern states, and possibly even another seven -- leading to promises of extra vaccine from the U.S. stockpile."

"There are no deaths and few hospitalizations being reported from the disease, which health officials say might have been helped by air travel."

"But the nation's federal health agency said Wednesday it's the largest outbreak in almost two decades with more than 1,000 cases and its expected to keep growing."

"It''s a "cascade of transmission that's going to take awhile to curtail and stop," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta."

"More than 800 cases are in Iowa. The CDC has pledged to provide 25,000 doses of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine to the state from the agency's stockpile. And Merck & Co., the vaccine maker, is giving another 25,000 doses to the CDC for distribution to other states, Gerberding said in a briefing in Atlanta."

"As to its spread in the United States, Iowa health officials last week noted that two infected Iowa airline passengers carried the disease on nine different flights."

"Mumps is a virus spread by coughing and sneezing. The most common symptoms are fever, headache and swollen salivary glands under the jaw. But it can lead to more serious problems, such as hearing loss, meningitis and fertility-diminishing swollen testicles."

"Once a childhood rite of passage, mumps has been on the wane since a vaccine came along in the late 1960s. A two-dose shot is recommended for all children, and is considered very effective -- but not completely -- at preventing it. About 10 percent of people who get both doses are still susceptible, Gerberding said."

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How utterly vulnerable we are to the spread of disease by air travelers. And in my mind compounded by the complaisance of people who should but don't get the necessary immunizations for themselves and their children.

Mumps can have extremely serious complications, some of them fatal such as meningitis and some of them life crippling such as the inability to sire children.

Think I'll check our clinic and see if I can get the mumps shots - - not that I expect to sire any more children, but to avoid the other complications of the disease. Will other people do this ? I don't know, I don't know if they will or WHEN ? . . . . . . . . . .

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