Posted on 04/20/2006 1:08:16 PM PDT by xjcsa
By TIM JAMISON, Courier Staff Writer
WATERLOO --- Mayor Tim Hurley is the latest victim of a growing mumps epidemic in the Midwest.
Hurley, who believes he was infected during a Cedar Valley Coalition trip to Washington, D.C., March 26-29, learned Wednesday afternoon that he had an active case of the disease.
"I feel fine other than being stuck here at home," Hurley said today. "My contagious period is probably over, as it turns out, but I will stay away for awhile. Discretion is the better part of valor."
As mayor, Hurley's schedule brings him in contact with numerous people at meetings and during speaking engagements. But he's cut back on his activities since getting a mumps test on Friday.
"I curtailed my schedule Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday," he said. "I didn't go to council. I didn't go to Easter mass. I did try to minimize contact since last Thursday."
Hurley has contacted the Black Hawk County Health Department and is working to compile a list of events he attended and individuals he was in contact with during his contagious period. Hurley said health officials believe he was most likely contagious between April 10 and Wednesday of this week.
"I haven't been coughing and sneezing, which I understand is the most common way for it to spread," he said.
Terry Poe Buschkamp, executive director of Main Street Waterloo, was infectious with mumps when she participated in the Cedar Valley Coalition trip.
Bob Justis, president of the Greater Cedar Valley Chambers of Commerce-Waterloo and Cedar Falls, said so far, he has managed to avoid the epidemic despite participating in the Coalition trip.
"I'm knocking on so much wood you wouldn't believe it," Justis said.
Justis had not heard of anyone else from the delegation catching the mumps.
The mumps epidemic is the nation's first in 20 years, with cases reported in Iowa, Nebraska , Kansas, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin and Minnesota. More than 500 cases have been reported in Iowa alone.
The Centers for Disease Control said the cause of the epidemic is unknown, though the United Kingdom may be the source of Iowa's mumps strain, called genotype G . The country experienced a mumps epidemic last year that attacked young adults with the same strain. The United Kingdom also was linked to a mumps outbreak last year in the United States.
The most common symptom of mumps is swelling of the salivary glands, which causes the cheeks to puff out. About one-third of those infected show no signs or symptoms.
Though the majority of cases don't involve severe health problems some can involve severe swelling of a testicle, which can result in sterility. Mumps also may result in meningitis and encephalitis, but there has been only one suspected case of encephalitis and no cases of meningitis in the state.
Staff writer RC Balaban contributed to this article.
Contact Tim Jamison at (319) 291-1577 or at tim.jamison@wcfcourier.com.
The group Hurley was traveling with when he contracted the disease met with both of Iowa's US Senators on the trip (Dung-heap Harkin and Charles Grassley).
Maybe he met Bill Clinton, who also had mumps. Or at least that's what he told Juanita Brodderick after allegedly raping her.
Isn't mumps a disease that included in childhood immunizations? Or have "they" decided that the vaccine is no longer needed becasue of so few cases or becasue of the anti-vaccine crowed?
It's interesting that the CDC is saying 95% of the people that got the mumps were fully vaccinated, yet is responding to all this by ordering thousands more vaccination supplies and encouraging people to get vaccinated. Of course, vaccinations are big money for doctors...
Mumps in an adult male is no joke. You can't even bear the weight of a blanket if it moves south.
Mumps used to be primarily a childhood disease. Knowing the mayor's age would seem to be basic information, but the author is apparently a journalist and not a reporter.
Yes, it's the MMR immunization (measles, mumps, rubella). I think it's typically required for school but some parents don't have their kids immunized. Apparently this strain of mumps was imported from England.
Immune response typically wanes after vaccination, so revaccination can kickstart it again. It looks like the vaccine isn't terribly effective against this strain (it's from England), but reimmunizing is a rational move.
Yet, lo and behold, we can hear a PIN DROP! Complete silence!
Why? Because immigration is on the hot-seat right now, and the culprits were ILLEGAL ALIENS.
RIGHT?
The vaccination frequently attenuates over the years. The idea is that you get a critical mass of kids vaccinated and this breaks the transmission vectors so that even unvaccinated people or people whose immunity has waned with age don't have much to worry about. But, if there's an outbreak anyhow, then you've got to revaccinate.
I somehow managed to contract a freak case of mumps back in 1989. They didn't have any other reports of it in the area, but I somehow got it, and I had had all the childhood vaccinations.
That's exactly what Savage was talking about last evening.
RIGHT?
Except when the disease arrive by "coyote" !
I haven't heard whether the source was illegal aliens or not. There are not a lot of them here in town, although there are quite a few in other parts of the state. There is a rather large Bosnian immigrant/refugee population here in town; that's another possible source, if they were not immunized when they moved here. Or it could have just happened; I don't know.
I wonder about those vaccinations. I got a flu shot back in November and I still got sick (3 times). I mean really sick. It happens everytime I decide to get a flu shot. My niece got a chicken pox vaccine. Guess what she's got now? Chickpox.
But hey, bird flu MIGHT maybe mutate and make people sick. Mumps is bad for adolescents and adults.
You sound just like Michael Savage (radio guy). He has been saying this all week too.
All of these illegal immigrants flooding into our country are bringing diseases that we conquered many years ago, but many of our younger generations are not immune to these now.
Thank you RINOs.
"There are not a lot of them here in town"
Ever heard of airline flights where your fellow Iowa citizens have flown into your state after sitting on an airliner full of third worlders?
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