Re: Re: unusually, an interesting question is posed
Graeme Johnson might feel that
"although mumps may have become less common before the vaccine was
introduced, the graphs on pages 129-131 of the 1996 Green Book are
impressive"
but even more impressive is the comment by Galbraith et al in 1984
(1) when mumps really was an item...
"A study of routine data on mumps in England and Wales suggests that
its epidemiological features are changing from those of an epidemic
disease in young adults and older children to a more endemic disease in
younger children. Infection now occurs at an earlier age, at which
complications are less frequent and symptomless infection may be more
common. The incidence of clinical disease may be falling. The high
proportion of registered deaths in the middle aged and elderly may be an
artifact due to misclassification of causes of death and to misdiagnosis.
These changes lessen the need for routine immunisation" - one might almost
say the vaccine was introduced in the nick of time, as far as the
purveyors were concerned, before the public got wind of its relative
obsolescence.
Mumps can cause viral meningitis - a less threatening form of
meningitis than that for which cases have increased exponentially since
the introduction of mumps and Hib (another cause of viral menigitis)
vaccines; a likely reason is that 'chasing away viral' allows bacterial -
the much more dangerous form of meningitis - to 'take its place'.
Rapid Response:
Re: Re: unusually, an interesting question is posed
Graeme Johnson might feel that
"although mumps may have become less common before the vaccine was
introduced, the graphs on pages 129-131 of the 1996 Green Book are
impressive"
but even more impressive is the comment by Galbraith et al in 1984
(1) when mumps really was an item...
"A study of routine data on mumps in England and Wales suggests that
its epidemiological features are changing from those of an epidemic
disease in young adults and older children to a more endemic disease in
younger children. Infection now occurs at an earlier age, at which
complications are less frequent and symptomless infection may be more
common. The incidence of clinical disease may be falling. The high
proportion of registered deaths in the middle aged and elderly may be an
artifact due to misclassification of causes of death and to misdiagnosis.
These changes lessen the need for routine immunisation" - one might almost
say the vaccine was introduced in the nick of time, as far as the
purveyors were concerned, before the public got wind of its relative
obsolescence.
Mumps can cause viral meningitis - a less threatening form of
meningitis than that for which cases have increased exponentially since
the introduction of mumps and Hib (another cause of viral menigitis)
vaccines; a likely reason is that 'chasing away viral' allows bacterial -
the much more dangerous form of meningitis - to 'take its place'.
Regards
John H.
References
1.
www.ncbi.nlm.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&dpot=Abstr..
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests