Virginia health officials report 66 suspected cases of mumps
The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) has reported 66 suspected cases of mumps since the beginning of March, according to a VDH alert.
Proper immunization can prevent up to 95 percent of mumps cases. Image/CDC
Cases of the viral disease have been reported from different areas of the state including an outbreak at the University of Richmond and cases reported at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and most recently at the James Madison University.
Mumps is a viral illness and will go away on its own in about a week. Mumps is spread in droplets from the nose and throat of an infected person, usually when a person coughs or sneezes. Mumps can also spread by direct contact with saliva and discharges from the nose and throat of an infected person.
The symptoms may include body aches, fever and swollen, tender glands in one or both sides of the jaw area.
Complications of mumps may include orchitis (which has been reported to be a risk factor for testicular cancer), encephalitis and spontaneous abortion. Sterility in males is a rare possible outcome.
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[…] Dr. Welsh noted that this the only confirmed or suspected case on campus. This follows a mumps outbreak south of Washington DC in Richmond, where several universities experienced outbreaks last month. […]
Story in Courthouse News:
Wednesday, June 27, 2012Last Update: 10:32 AM PT
Class Says Merck Lied About Mumps Vaccine
By REUBEN KRAMER
PHILADELPHIA (CN) – Merck has known for a decade that its mumps vaccine is “far less effective” than it tells the government, and it falsified test results and sold millions of doses of “questionable efficacy,” flooding and monopolizing the market, a primary caregiver claims in a federal antitrust class action.
Alabama-based Chatom Primary Care sued Merck on Monday, the week after the unsealing of a False Claims Act complaint two relators filed in 2010.
Those relators, Stephen Krahling and Joan Wlochowski, were Merck virologists who claim in their unsealed complaint that they “witnessed firsthand the improper testing and data falsification in which Merck engaged to artificially inflate the vaccine’s efficacy findings.”
Krahling and Wlochowski claimed Merck’s scheme caused the United States to pay “hundreds of millions of dollars for a vaccine that does not provide adequate immunization.”
“As the largest single purchaser of childhood vaccines (accounting for more than 50 percent of all vaccine purchases), the United States is by far the largest financial victim of Merck’s fraud,”
[…] Complications of mumps may include orchitis (which has been reported to be a risk factor for testicular cancer), encephalitis and spontaneous abortion. Sterility in males is a rare possible outcome. For more infectious disease news and information …Virginia health officials report 66 suspected cases of mumpsThe Global DispatchComplications of mumps may include orchitis (which has been reported to be a risk factor for testicular cancer), encephalitis and spontaneous abortion. Sterility in males is a rare possible outcome. For more infectious disease news and information … Go to Source […]
[…] Complications of mumps may include orchitis (which has been reported to be a risk factor for testicular cancer), encephalitis and spontaneous abortion. Sterility in males is a rare possible outcome. For more infectious disease news and information …Virginia health officials report 66 suspected cas…The Global DispatchComplications of mumps may include orchitis (which has been reported to be a risk factor for testicular cancer), encephalitis and spontaneous abortion. Sterility in males is a rare possible outcome. For more infectious disease news and information … Go to Source […]