Three at SIU catch mumps after Iowa outbreak

~ No cases have been reported in Southeast Missouri, state health officials said.

Southern Illinois University health officials hurried Thursday to publicly educate the Carbondale campus about mumps after three students this week showed symptoms of the illness. The cases added to an unusually high occurrence of the disease statewide this year.

No cases of mumps have been reported in Southeast Missouri, state health officials said.

Tests on Monday confirmed that one of the SIU students, who lived off campus, had mumps. Tests were pending on the two others, who live in separate residence halls with a combined occupancy of nearly 900 people.

The three students have been sent home and ordered confined until their symptoms pass, said Larry Dietz, the school's vice chancellor for student affairs.

SIU officials were trying to pinpoint whether the infected students had any classes, sports or other activities in common.

"There's definitely no reason to panic about mumps," said Deedra McLain of the school's Student Health Center. "Typically, it's self-resolving."

Dietz said the school's dormitories were being notified in writing about the recent mumps cases, with the letters telling them that there was nothing to fear from the illness and that if they develop symptoms they should call health facilities by telephone, rather than visit emergency rooms.

Almost all immunized

McLain said virtually all of the school's 20,000 students have been immunized against the illness but that 5 percent of those inoculated might develop symptoms.

Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health, said that as of Wednesday there had been 24 confirmed mumps cases in Illinois this year and an additional 22 possible cases. Typically, she said, Illinois has about a dozen confirmed mumps cases a year.

Missouri has three confirmed cases and two suspected cases, said Sue Denny, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services immunizatiion program. That is about as many cases as the state averages in an entire year, she said.

Public health officials throughout the Midwest are on alert for mumps following an Iowa outbreak with more than 500 suspected cases reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Missouri cases have been reported in Putnam, Greene, Henry, Adair and Knox counties. In the Henry County case, Denny said, health officials have learned that the person had contact with someone in Iowa who has the disease.

Cape Girardeau County health director Charlotte Craig said she has sent out alerts to doctors and infection-control workers to be on the watch for the symptoms of mumps.

"No one knows what is happening," Craig said. "This is a vaccine-preventable disease. From what I have read and understand, most people who are getting sick have been immunized, so nobody really understands what is going on and why."

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, which give the disease its name. But it can lead to more severe problems, such as hearing loss, meningitis and fertility-diminishing swollen testicles.

People exposed to mumps develop symptoms about three weeks later, Craig said. And they can spread the disease for up to a week before exhibiting symptoms.

"I don't think it is anything spooky," Craig said. "Nobody needs to be excited about it. If they have any of those symptoms, they should check it out."

Denny added that people who suspect they might be infected should alert their doctors prior to visiting a clinic so they can be isolated from other patients when they arrive.

Officials can't confirm if any of the SIU cases were linked to two infected airline passengers who might have helped spread Iowa's mumps outbreak to six other Midwestern states, including Illinois, through encounters in planes or airports.

The mumps outbreak is the nation's first in 20 years. As of Monday, Nebraska had 43 reported cases; Kansas, 33; Wisconsin, four; and Minnesota, one.

Officials in other states have not linked any cases to the air travelers. No deaths have been reported from the current outbreak.

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, said Kevin Teale, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Public Health.

Staff writer Rudi Keller contributed to this report.