Des Moines Register
04-21-06
State sets mumps battle focus on young adults
Iowans between the ages of 18 and 22 in 35 counties can receive a vaccination.
TONY LEYS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Mass vaccination clinics will be set up next week in college towns across Iowa,
as public-health officials try to contain a mumps epidemic.
The Iowa Department of Public Health announced Thursday that it was
distributing 25,000 doses of mumps vaccine to 35 counties that have colleges.
The vaccine will be offered to people 18 through 22 years old, who have been
the most likely to become ill in the recent epidemic.
The shots will be given to anyone in that age group, regardless of whether he or
she is enrolled in a college. There will be little or no charge for the vaccine, which
is being sent here by federal officials.
A second wave of vaccinations in early May will focus on other counties.
Department Director Mary Mincer Hansen said officials are hustling to set up the
vaccination clinics before colleges' spring semesters end next month.
"We want to catch the students before they go home," where they could spread
mumps to others, she said.
News of the vaccination clinics came as the state released figures showing that
975 cases of confirmed or suspected mumps have been reported in Iowa this
year. Iowa is at the center of a puzzling Midwest outbreak that has received
nationwide attention. Although most mumps patients experience only mild
symptoms, such as headache and jaw soreness, a few can suffer serious
consequences, including deafness, sterility in men and miscarriages in women
who are in their first trimester of pregnancy.
Among the patients is Waterloo Mayor Tim Hurley, who apparently became
infected last month during a business-development trip to Washington, D.C.
Hurley, 61, said Thursday that he felt fine. "I really didn't have any of the classic
symptoms until last week, and then it was a very minor sore throat." His doctor
ran a test, which came back positive Wednesday.
Hurley said he's been working from home, and hopes to return to the office next
week. A local economic-development official who went on the trip also came
down with a minor case of mumps, prompting a warning last week to other
passengers on the flights they took and the officials they met.
County health departments will run the shot clinics, whose dates, locations and
times will be publicized as they are set. To make the public vaccine stretch as far
as possible, officials ask that young people who have health insurance and
access to a private doctor make an appointment to receive a shot at their regular
clinics.
Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, state medical examiner, said the outbreak comes from a
strain of the virus that has caused 70,000 illnesses in the United Kingdom, where
fewer people are vaccinated. It's unclear whether the two epidemics are related,
she said, and authorities are setting the mystery aside for now.
"We are not spending time trying to go back in time and find the source," she
said. "We are trying to go forward to find out where this outbreak is going and
what kinds of things we can do at this point to get this outbreak slowed down or
stopped."
Quinlisk said almost all children younger than 18 were required to receive two
doses of the vaccine before they entered kindergarten. Many college-age adults
only received one dose, she said.
Though many Iowa colleges require two doses of the vaccine before freshmen
can enter, Quinlisk said, some are more stringent than others about enforcing the
rule. She suggested that the Legislature consider adding Iowa to the list of states
that require proof of such vaccination for new students.
About 5 percent to 10 percent of people who are vaccinated twice are still
susceptible to the disease, Quinlisk said. College students who have had the
shots still can face a significant risk of illness, because they often live and study
in close contact with other students, allowing easy transmission of the virus to
those whose vaccinations failed to take.
That may be what's happening in Dubuque, which has had the state's biggest
problems with mumps. Lois Noel, director of the student health center at
Dubuque's Loras College, said at least 39 of her school's 1,700 students have
come down with mumps this spring, and several others have suspected cases.
Since 1983, Loras has required freshmen to prove that they have had two
mumps shots before they register for classes. "We definitely enforce that," she
said. "They can't just say, 'Oh, I had it.' "
Iowa State University has a similar requirement. "We're very on top of getting our
students vaccinated for measles and mumps," said Penni McKinley, quality
improvement coordinator at ISU's student health center.
More than 99 percent of ISU students ages 18 through 22 have shown proof of
two doses of the vaccine, she said. But the virus is cropping up there. Two ISU
students have confirmed cases, and several others have suspected cases.
One of next week's public shot clinics will be at the ISU campus. One of the
targets will be spouses of students, McKinley said.