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Air Travelers Eyed in Mumps Outbreak

 

Midwestern epidemic is nation's first in two decades.

 

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Two infected airline passengers may have helped

spread Iowa's mumps epidemic to six other Midwestern states, health

officials said Wednesday, the latest example of how quickly disease can

spread through air travel.

 

" These people may have exposed other people on those planes or in these

airports, " said Kevin Teale, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of

Public Health.

 

The mumps epidemic is the nation's first in 20 years. Health officials

say 515 suspected cases have been reported in Iowa, and the disease also

has been seen in six neighboring states, according to the U.S. Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

As of Monday, Nebraska has 43 reported cases; Kansas, 33; Illinois,

four; Missouri, four; Wisconsin, four; and Minnesota, one.

 

The Iowa health department identified two people who were potentially

infectious when they were traveling in late March and early April.

 

Officials in other states have not yet linked any cases to the air

travelers. But because the illness's incubation is two to three weeks,

cases may not begin appearing until about now, Teale said.

 

This week the CDC put out an advisory about the passengers to state

health departments.

 

" Infectious diseases can travel easily on planes and other modes of

transportation, " said Dr. Jane Seward, acting deputy director of the

CDC's viral diseases division.

 

The first traveler is executive director of a Waterloo, Iowa, downtown

development organization who in late March was in a delegation that

traveled to Washington, D.C.

 

The woman, Terry Poe Buschkamp, had earlier visited the Dominican

Republic, where she thinks she may have caught the bug. Health officials

did not release her name, but she has acknowledged her infection to the

media.

 

Buschkamp, 51, left Waterloo on March 26 on a Mesaba Airlines flight to

Minneapolis, Minnesota, and then flew Northwest Airlines to Detroit,

Michigan. On March 26, she flew to Washington, D.C.'s Reagan National

Airport. During her visit, she shook hands with Iowa's two U.S.

senators, Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley, she said.

 

She returned to Waterloo on March 29 on Northwest and Mesaba flights,

with a stop in Minneapolis.

 

She said she developed a scratchy throat upon her return, and after

hearing reports of a mumps outbreak, went to a doctor for testing. She

got confirmatory test results six days later.

 

During those six days, she had been to church and numerous work events,

including an April 1 pub crawl that involved about 370 people. Mumps has

been a mild disease for most people, but Buschkamp found the length of

time she was able to spread the virus before learning her test results

alarming.

 

" That's the real story, " she said.

 

She said two of her fellow travelers have told her they have mumps-like

symptoms, but have declined to see a doctor about it.

 

The second person was a young man returning from vacation in Arizona on

April 1, Teale said.

 

He flew American Airlines, from Tucson, Arizona, to Dallas, Texas, then

to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to St. Louis, Missouri, and finally to Cedar

Rapids, Iowa.

 

Two people -- and nine flights? " It's hard to get anywhere [from Iowa]

without connecting, " Teale explained.

 

Mumps is a virus-caused illness spread by coughing and sneezing. The

most common symptoms are fever, headache and swollen salivary glands

under the jaw. But it can lead to more severe problems, such as hearing

loss, meningitis and fertility-diminishing swollen testicles.

 

No deaths have been reported from the current epidemic.

 

A two-dose mumps vaccine is recommended for all children, and is

considered highly -- but not completely -- effective against the

illness. About a quarter of the Iowans who have suspected cases got the

vaccine, Teale said.

 

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

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http://edition.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/conditions/04/12/mumps.outbreak.ap/index.html