Britain is in the midst of a measles epidemic, the country’s public health watchdog says. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) warns that the total number of unvaccinated children was now large enough to sustain the “continuous spread” of the potentially lethal virus throughout the U.K.  HPA blamed a failure by parents to give their children the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

This has resulted in vaccine rates falling below the level necessary to prevent the disease from becoming established in the general population, doctors say.

The report said: “Due to almost 10 years of sub-optimal MMR vaccination coverage across the U.K., the number of children susceptible to measles is now sufficient to support the continuous spread of measles.

Figures released this week show cases of measles in London reached a new peak last month, exceeding last year’s monthly record set in August 2007, and are continuing to rise.

A total of 95 cases of measles confirmed in London and 35 in the rest of England and Wales bringing the total for the year to 461.

Recently, a 17-year-old patient from West Yorkshire died from the disease. In another case, a physician working in a hospital cancer ward contracted measles.

Fifty years ago, a measles epidemic killed 500 children a year in the U.K. Last month’s death was only the second in more than a decade.

The HPA, which published the latest figures in its weekly report, said the rise in measles cases in London was linked to an outbreak at a secondary school which had spread to neighboring schools and nurseries in the capital.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

Children are dying of measles once again.

Posted: June 24th, 2008 under Diseases, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Vaccinations.
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A new concern is emerging in medicine — infection protection and control in dental office waiting rooms.

The Organization for Safety and Asepsis Procedures addresses the topic in its May issue in a feature entitled, “The Reception Room” is a feature in the May issue of the OSAP’s association publication Infection Control in Practice.

The article is aimed at helping dental professionals recognize sites in the reception room that need constant attention with regard to cleanliness and infection control, and is the second installment of a new series on compartmentalizing infection control policies and procedures.

Patients, caregivers and the the dental team are all at risk of infection in the waiting room. The article reports that there are new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as to how to control infection in the reception area, and provide disease prevention information for patients.

– by The Editors

The dental office — next place where MRSA will flourish?

Posted: June 4th, 2008 under Diseases, Herpes-Cold Sores, Influenza, Meningitis, Mumps, Norwalk-Like Viruses, Pneumonia, Rubella.
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The Irish Health Protection Surveillance Center is warning students that they should have the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine following outbreaks of mumps in a number of third-level colleges.

This year, health authorities said, there have been over 150 cases of mumps among Irish students, and five were admitted to hospital.

Seven centers of learning have been affected - the Institutes of Technology in Waterford and Limerick and at Universities in Cork, Limerick, Galway, Maynooth and Dublin City University.

The mumps is a contagious acute viral illness, which until recently has been on the decline.

Complications with the mumps are usually mild but it can cause meningitis and deafness.

In years past there was major concern about the MMR vaccine after a study in 1998 linked it with autism.

That research has only recently being found to be untrue but in the intervening years it led to a major declikne in the number of children availing of the vaccine.

Now around 86 percent of children are getting the vaccine but health experts say 95 percent should be covered in order to prevent against a major outbreak.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

Nearly 20 percent of Irish children do not recieve the MMR vaccination. Source: Vaccine Ireland.

Posted: May 29th, 2008 under Diseases, Measles, Mumps, Rubella.
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An increasing number of children are being stricken with parotitis and encephalitis in Ho Chi Minh City, the capital of Vietnam. Outbreaks of hand, foot-mouth disease and petechial fever are not under control by health authorities, either. The city is a virtual incubator for infectious diseases today.

According to the city’s department of health, in the first four month of this year’s incidence of petechial fever is over 2,000 cases. That’s double the amount of the same period last year. Two children have succumbed to the disease this year.

The incidence of hand-foot-mouth disease is 755, of which seven died. Children under three are most at risk of the illness, which is transmitted directly through patients’ saliva, mucus, and feces.

“Hand-foot-mouth disease has occurred in all the city’s districts. If we don’t have good measure to control it, this could become an epidemic,” said Phan Van Nghiem, head of administration department of the city health department.

The department is establishing a steering committee to prevent and control hand-foot-mouth disease to cut back its incidence and mortality to a rate lower than last year’s. In 2007, 3,460 children were diagnosed with the illness. Sixteen of them died last year.

According to the city’s Pasteur Institute, the early start to the rainy season created “ideal conditions” for petechial fever, hand-foot-mouth disease and various respiratory diseases.

The city’s pediatrics hospital’s respiratory faculty is now admitting 140-150 patients every day, twice last week’s number, according to Dr. Tran Tuan Anh.

Another pediatric hospital in the city is admitting nearly 100 respiratory disease patients daily.About 80 per cent of the patients at both hospitals are under two years old, most of whom are diagnosed with bronchitis. Lung abscesses, pleurisy, asthma, and other complications from pneumonia are also frequent in these patients.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director and Nancy Breuning, Associate Managing Editor

Symptom of paratitis — swollen glands in the neck.

Posted: May 20th, 2008 under Developing Diseases, Diseases, EV71, Mumps.
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A dramatic increase in mumps, largely due to a higher number of people who are not being vaccinated, and those who are missing their booster shot against the virus, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. 

“Some people don’t want to immunize their kid because of religious or philosophical reasons, they say ‘I don’t believe in the vaccine, or the vaccine causes more harm than good.’ But they are not science-based decisions,” said agency spokesman Dr. Paul Varughese.

The statistics are alarming from a public health point of view:

* Back in 2006 there were a total of 17 cases of mumps in Canada.
* There have already been about 130 cases this year.
* But there were 1,284 cases of mumps in 2007.

“This is considered a large outbreak. Because of the vaccination programs we don’t see too many cases of mumps and so this is higher than what is expected,” he said.

The most recent cases are occurring in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, the International Society for Infectious Diseases reported this week.

– by the Editors

For more information, go to,

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=373238

Transmission route of mumps. Source: U.S. government.

Posted: March 13th, 2008 under Mumps.
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 Students at the University of Maine are being sent home from school, unless they demonstrate proof of two doses of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination. Mumps is an acute viral infection of the salivary glands. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle ache, swelling and tenderness of the salivary glands at the angle of the jaw. Transmission occurs through coughing and sneezing, making contact with saliva, or touching surfaces that have been contaminated with the mumps virus. Proper use of disinfectants can control spread of the disease.

According to Richard Young, practice manager at Cutler Health Center,  e-mails were sent to all students in November when the “first cases of mumps” were found. Young said a second e-mail was sent on Dec. 28 after the news of the “mumps outbreak.”

At the time of the mumps outbreak, nearly 2,000 students had incomplete records. Flyers were spread across campus stating, “No mumps immunity, no classes, it’s that simple.”

Experts said that if a student doesn’t meet the immunization requirements, there are some exceptions that would allow him or her to still be enrolled in school. These exceptions include a physician’s statement declaring the vaccination is medically inadvisable or if a student or parent states in writing an opposition to the immunization because of a religious belief or for moral, philosophical or other personal reasons, according to local press reports.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

http://media.www.mainecampus.com/media/storage/paper322/news/2008/01/24/News/Local.Mumps.Outbreak.Spurs.Um.Enforcement-3165153.shtml

 Boy with mumps. Image courtesy of the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Posted: February 1st, 2008 under Feature Stories, Infection Protection, Measles, Mumps, Rubella.
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New findings released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)  indicate that the majority of adult Americans lack awareness of vaccines, and are at risk for serious infectious diseases.An expert panel discussed the data at a press conference held by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID), which is calling for “increased use of vaccines in adults to reduce needless, illness, and deaths associated with infectious diseases.”Other pertinent points of the survey are as follows: * The survey shows only 2.1% of adults 18 to 64 years of age are immunized against tetanus-diphtheria-whooping cough.* Immunization to prevent shingles among people 60 and over was only 1.9%. Vaccine coverage for the prevention of HPV — human papillomavirus — among women 18 to 26 is about 10%”Routine immunization of children in the U.S. has saved hundreds of thousands of lives and prevented millions of cases of disease, but vaccines are not just for children,” says Anne Schuchat, M.D., director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “These new data show there are not yet very many adults taking full advantage of the great advancements in prevention that have been made in the past few years.”We understand there are now 17 diseases that can be prevented from vaccines given to children, teens, and adults. Several vaccines, including three fairly new ones licensed since 2005, are recommended specifically for the adult years. Immunization is recommended for U.S. adults to protect them against chickenpox, diphtheria, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, human papillomavirus/cervical cancer (HPV), influenza, measles, meningococcal disease, mumps, pertussis (whooping cough), pneumococcal disease, rubella, shingles, and tetanus. We also recommend that adults use effective infection control methods — gloves, masks — at home to prevent the spread of these diseases.– The Editors

Kids are not the only ones at risk for chicken pox — adults are too.

Image source: National Library of Medicine.

Posted: January 23rd, 2008 under Hepatitis, Influenza, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Whooping Cough.
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