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news - Mumps Resurfaces In Canada And USA on HWN MUMPS back to all News
Mumps Resurfaces In Canada And USA on HWN MUMPS
Mumps-Resurfaces-In-Canada-And-USA-on-HWN-MUMPS
The chipmunk cheeks of mumps and its complications have led public health officials in several provinces to remind young adults to check if they need vaccination boosters.
 
Mumps is a viral infection that is contagious and spread through saliva and respiratory droplets.
 
It can also be associated with deafness, meningitis, said Dr. Sarah Wilson, medical epidemiologist with Public Health Ontario. There are significant complications but fortunately for most people, it's an unpleasant, uncomfortable experience that resolves.
 
So far this year in Ontario, there have been 19 cases, Wilson said, compared with the usual annual count of five to 23.
 
Toronto Public Health has logged 14 cases since January, which might not seem statistically significant, but for the past five years the city has seen an average of four cases each year.
 
All of the cases have been confirmed in adults aged 18 to 35, with the investigation focused on bars on the west side of downtown. About 60 per cent of those infected either never received the mumps, measles and rubella booster or only got one of the two recommended doses, said Dr. Vinita Dubey, acting medical officer of health.
 
Providing a second round of the vaccine wasn't practised until the early 1990s, which has led to a small gap in the herd immunity for those born between 1970 and 1994.
 
Anyone born before then likely had the mumps as a child, Dubey said, and is considered immune.
 
Health officials in the Halifax area say a case of mumps and seven measles cases have been reported. Both infections are covered by the same combination vaccine.
 
Last week, the Nova Scotia Health Authority notified the public about three people who had become infected, saying it was the first time in nine years that the highly contagious measles infection had been reported.
 
In Medicine Hat, Alta., there are six confirmed cases of mumps, said Dr. Vivien Suttorp, medical officer of health for Alberta Health Services. All of the cases are connected to hockey.
 
The first Western Hockey League player to be diagnosed with mumps plays for the Brandon Wheat Kings in Manitoba.
 
The cases among Medicine Hat's players is thought to have originated in Manitoba
 
Medicine Hat Tigers right-winger John Dahlstrom, 20, said he woke up with a swollen neck before he was diagnosed.
 
It was bad for about two days, Dahlstrom said. I had fever and a real hard time eating, hard to swallow food, and then after that I started feeling good again.
 
Wilson said that in adults, disease symptoms such as fatigue, headaches and gland swelling can be worse, and so can its complications.
 
Mumps can lead to swelling of the testicles that in rare cases can lead to sterility. Swelling of the ovaries can also occur.
 
People can be infectious for two to five days before the cheek swelling, said Dr. Monika Naus, medical director for immunization programs at the BC Centre for Disease Control.
 
That's why guidelines recommend that infected individuals self-isolate for nine days, and the first five days in particular, Naus said.
 
The effectiveness of two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is about 88 per cent, Naus said.
 
In terms of the picture of mumps and our questions about how do two doses of mumps-containing vaccine offer protection, I think the scenarios where it's most challenging are where there are a lot of people, a lot of crowding and then the opportunity for sharing food and drink, Wilson said.
Previous outbreaks
 
While most of B.C.'s cases of mumps in recent years were probably among those who had a single dose of the vaccine, cases can also occur among people who've received both doses, such as Sidney Crosby in 2014.
 
Bars were also the epicentre for outbreaks in Nova Scotia in 2007 and in 2016 in Whistler, B.C., Naus said.
 
In the U.S., federal officials said Thursday that they are looking into whether mumps immunity decreases over time and whether there would be benefits to a third dose.
 
Although the disease has not been serious, the disruption and expense it has caused for local and state health officials has been significant, said Mona Marin, a viral diseases expert with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
 
While there's been talk of offering three doses of the vaccine during outbreaks on college campuses in the U.S., Naus said, that doesn't fit the picture of community-based outbreaks that have occurred in B.C.
 
Source: CBC, HWN AFRICA.

 

: 2017-02-24 03:22:50 | : 1792

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