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April 27, 2006
Little Rock --
The Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Health (DOH), is reporting a case of mumps. A possible second case is still being investigated and further lab work is being collected.
Contacts of these patients will be notified and immunization records assessed to determine if additional doses of mumps, measles, rubella vaccine (MMR) are needed. Neither of the patients have had any known contact with any cases from Iowa and other states affected by the recent mumps epidemic in the Midwest. Nor have these patients been exposed to the infected individual that was on American Airlines Flight 3617 that landed at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport on April 2, 2006.
The DOH is receiving an increased number of reports of mumps because of the increased awareness of the disease among medical professionals as a result of the Midwest epidemic.
Mumps is caused by a virus spread by coughing and sneezing. The symptoms include fever, headache and swollen glands in front of the ear and around the jaw. Symptoms usually appear 14-18 days after exposure. The disease can lead to hearing loss, meningitis and other complications.
Mumps is seen very rarely in the United States. Two cases were reported in Arkansas in 2005.
The decline in mumps cases is largely due to vaccination efforts since 1977. A dose of mumps vaccine (MMR) is routinely recommended for all children. The vaccine is given on or after the first birthday. The vaccine is 80 percent effective after one dose. It is believed that the epidemic in the Midwest is probably the result of the 20 percent of vaccinated persons in which the vaccine did not give protection.
For more information on mumps, click on www.cdc.gov or
http://www.idph.state.ia.us/adper/faq_general.asp#008. ###
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