In a follow-up to the mumps outbreak in Illinois, state health officials now report 146 cases statewide, with 114 cases associated with the outbreak at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Last week, Robert D. Palinkas, MD, Director of the McKinley Health Center at UI said the number of new cases daily varies between two and four. In addition, two large mass vaccination clinics were held last week where 4,599 people were vaccinated.
In 2014, Illinois reported 36 confirmed and 105 probable mumps cases. Nationally as of August 21, the CDC has reported 310 mumps cases, a number dramatically down from 2014 when 1,151 cases were seen.
In 2014, mumps outbreaks hit several college campuses including the University of Idaho, Ohio State University and The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, among others.
Mumps is spread by droplets of saliva or mucus from the mouth, nose, or throat of an infected person, usually when the person coughs, sneezes or talks. Items used by an infected person, such as cups or softdrink cans, can also be contaminated with the virus, which may spread to others if those items are shared.
Symptoms typically appear 16-18 days after infection, but this period can range from 12-25 days after infection. It is usually a mild disease, but can occasionally cause serious complications.
The most common complication is inflammation of the testicles (orchitis) in males who have reached puberty; rarely does this lead to fertility problems.
Other rare complications include inflammation of the brain and/or tissue covering the brain and spinal cord (encephalitis/meningitis), inflammation of the ovaries (oophoritis) and/or breasts (mastitis) in females who have reached puberty and deafness. Anyone who is not immune from either previous mumps infection or from vaccination can get mumps.
The CDC says mumps can be prevented with MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine. MMR vaccine prevents most, but not all, cases of mumps and complications caused by the disease. Two doses of the vaccine are 88% (range: 66-95%) effective at preventing mumps; one dose is 78% (range: 49%−92%) effective.
Robert Herriman is a microbiologist and the Editor-in-Chief of Outbreak News Today and the Executive Editor of The Global Dispatch
Follow @bactiman63
According to the two whistleblowers, not only have all the multivalent MMR vaccines been sold under false pretenses, but, as a result of this LACK OF EFFICACY, there have been numerous mumps
outbreaks worldwide prompting calls for regular MMR boosters throughout life. These mumps outbreaks were predicted by Merck’s Dr Krah in 2001, yet Merck allegedly ‘willfully’ withheld this information from multiple governments while consistently claiming there was no need for a new mumps component.
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA
United States of America ex rel., Stephen A Krahling and Joan A Wlochowski, AMENDED
COMPLAINT FOR Plaintiffs, VIOLATIONS OF THE FEDERAL FALSE CLAIMS
ACT FILED Merck & Co.inc . Defendant
http://sanevax(dot)org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Merck-mumps-suit.pdf
COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE:
Class Says Merck Lied About Mumps Vaccine By REUBEN KRAMER
http://www.courthousenews(dot)com/2012/06/27/47851.htm
*****Chatom Primary Care sues Merck for Sherman Act monopolization, breach of warranty, violation of consumer protection laws.
The lawsuit record is available here:
http://www.naturalnews(dot)com/gallery/documents/Chatom-Lawsuit-Merck-Mumps.pdf
It alleges
-[Merck engaged in] …a decade-long scheme to falsify and misrepresent the true efficacy of its vaccine.
-Merck fraudulently represented and continues to falsely represent in its labeling and elsewhere that its Mumps Vaccine has an efficacy rate of 95 percent of higher.
-In reality, Merck knows and has taken affirmative steps to conceal — by using improper testing techniques and falsifying test data — that its Mumps Vaccine is, and has been since at least 1999, far less than 95 percent effective.
-Merck designed a testing methodology that evaluated its vaccine against a less virulent strain of the mumps virus. After the results failed to yield Merck’s desired efficacy, Merck abandoned the methodology and concealed the study’s findings.
…incorporating the use of animal antibodies to artificially inflate the results…
…destroying evidence of the falsified data and then lying to an FDA investigator…
…threatened a virologist in Merck’s vaccine division with jail if he reported the fraud to the FDA…
…the ultimate victims here are the millions of children who every year are being injected with a mumps vaccine that is not providing them with an adequate level of protection. And while this is a disease that,
according to the Centers for Disease Control (‘CDC’), was supposed to be eradicated by now, the failure in Merck’s vaccine has allowed this disease to linger, with significant outbreaks continuing to occur.
Chatom Primary Care also alleges that the fraudulent Merck vaccine contributed to the 2006 mumps outbreak in the Midwest, and a 2009 outbreak elsewhere. It says, “there has remained a significant risk of aresurgence of mumps outbreaks…”
-Judge: Lawsuit Against Merck’s MMR Vaccine Fraud to Continue
http://healthimpactnews(dot)com/2014/judge-lawsuit-against-mercks-mmr-vaccine-fraud-to-continue/
-Memorandum issued by Judge explaining his ruling.
http://www.rescuepost(dot)com/files/59-opinion.pdf
-Qui Tam, Class Action Cases Against Merck Proceed: Gina Passarella, The Legal Intelligencer
http://www.thelegalintelligencer(dot)com/home/id=1202669116132/Qui-Tam-Class-Action-Cases-Against-Merck-Proceed?slreturn=20150414103317
-Vaccine Whistleblowers File to Compel Merck to Respond to Federal Lawsuit: http://healthimpactnews(dot)com/2015/vaccine-whistleblowers-file-to-compel-merk-to-respond-to-federal-lawsuit/