WASHINGTON, April 19 (Xinhua) -- The number of mumps cases has increased to 1,100 across eight Midwestern states in the largest outbreak over nearly two decades in the United States, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported Wednesday.
More than 800 cases have been reported in Iowa, which is at the center of the outbreak. An additional 350 cases have been reported in Minnesota, Kansas, Illinois, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Missouri and Oklahoma. The CDC said infections were expected to increase, and that it was investigating cases in seven other states.
The CDC is sending 25,000 doses of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine to Iowa from the agency's stockpile. The drug maker Merck & Co. Inc. has donated an additional 25,000 doses.
Mumps is vaccine-preventable, but the vaccine can only work in about 90 percent of the population. Mumps is a viral infection of the salivary glands. Its symptoms include fever, headache and swelling of the glands around the jaw. The infection can also lead to serious complications including encephalitis, meningitis, inflammation of the testicles, ovaries or pancreas.
The mumps virus is transmitted by coughing and sneezing. In the United States, an average of 265 mumps cases have been reported each year since 2001. Enditem
