A report has come out detailing that more than 70 people have come down with the mumps in NY and NJ.
If only we had a vaccine to stop these outbreaks! Oh wait, we do and started using the first incarnation of the vaccine in 1950. Currently Merck produces the Mumpsvax product for use in the US. Now I’ll note that a large percentage (75%) of the people who came down with the disease have been reported to have been fully immunized, but I suspect that the antibody response has waned since getting the vaccine as a young child. Most victims have been 10-15 years old and the age range of the infectd has been from 1 to 40.
The child who originally came down with the mumps was attending a summer camp in Britain where vaccine rates are so low that many diseases have been once again declared endemic (most notably the measles). This started in the 90′s with Andrew Wakefield trying his best to fudge the science and blame the MMR vaccine for autism. Though his numbers have been shown to be manipulated, multiple studies have not found an association between the two, and Wakefield’s competing interests have been outed there still is a large sentiment in portions of the country that resist getting vaccinated. This leads to outbreaks like this.
February 14, 2010 at 08:21
unfortunately, the Mumpsvax vaccine — a specific individual shot — has been discontinued. Consequently — in an epidemic, there is no option but the full MMR– which a lot of parents will refuse to get again (in the current Mumps outbreak — they are recommending a third dose of MMR –just to combat Mumps). Let’s agree that the autism link has been discredited, but why should children be subjected to all three vaccines again, simply to address a specific Mumps epidemic? Many will avoid doing this, and for reasons that are simple: an aggregate grouping of vaccines is harder on the immune system, and if it can be avoided by targeting a specific virus with a specific
vaccine, why wouldn’t Merck make this available?!
Immunization against Swine Flu is not combined with three other shots– why must the Mumpsvax vaccine, which was available, be withheld by the drug company? Likewise the individual Measles and Rubella shots? There was an article that said 20,000 families were waiting for the return of the individual shots in the UK… and consequently remain unvaccinated. This threatens us all, and an easy solution is found by making the individual vaccines available again — so that epidemics can be addressed as they arise with vaccines that are specific to them