The very idea of avian flu is raising serious fears as public health specialists warn of the day when a human-transmitted strain rages into the community.
But a recent mumps outbreak in the Midwest remind us that “old” diseases still threaten – though there are proven ways to prevent their harm.
More than 600 cases of mumps were reported in Iowa as of late last week, with smaller outbreaks in five nearby states.
The highly contagious disease is usually uncomfortable but not life-threatening, but it can lead to serious complications like meningitis, hearing loss and reduced fertility in a few patients.
Vaccination has long been highly effective in preventing mumps – as high as 95 percent effective.
Although health officials aren’t sure what caused the recent outbreak, its pattern may be an indirect confirmation of the vaccine’s effectiveness.
Most of those who’ve come down with mumps are college-age, with very few patients among school-age and younger children. Iowa state epidemiologist Dr. Patricia Quinlisk speculated that’s because young adults typically had only one mumps shot as children, whereas a two-shot sequence has since become the norm.
Vaccination against infectious diseases was one of the great public-health triumphs of the 20th century. For example, a vaccine introduced in the 1970s has virtually wiped out congenital rubella syndrome, a birth defect caused by the German measles virus. An epidemic in the early 1960s affected 20,000 children.
But success may have created some complacency. While the U.S. has high childhood vaccination rates (Colorado trails the nation but is working on it), public-health officials worry about a growing problem of young children not getting their shots at the recommended ages and intervals.
There’s been some fear about the safety of vaccines, particularly because of thimerosal, a mercury compound used as a preservative. Some advocates have sought to tie vaccines to sudden infant death syndrome and rising rates of autism. Federal officials have been working to remove thimerosal from vaccines, and the Centers for Disease Control stresses an autism link is yet unproven.
What has been proven is that children are at a greater statistical risk of complications or death from measles, whooping cough and other diseases than they are of complications from getting their shots.
