ARGH!!!! MUMPS HAVE TAKEN OVER OUR TOWN!!!

amother

Sun, Nov 29 2009, 8:56 pm

We are a smaller city and there is a yeshiva here. apparently many bochurim have gotten mumps, now it has spread to our day school- several boys in 8th grade have or are suspected to have it.

no talk of closing down- what do I do?!?!?!?

does mumps go to girls? is there a certain age group that it affects?
would you send your kid to school?

amother

Sun, Nov 29 2009, 10:34 pm

there is a mumps epidemic in lakewood, brooklyn, and other places too. In the frum community-to people who have been vaccinated.

I have a feeling that op lives in my community. My tenants have 5 boys in town-3 in the yeshiva, and two in the day school. 1 of the yeshiva boys had it, and now one brother-in the day school has it. As far as I know, he is the only one in the day school to have it.

Mama Bear

Sun, Nov 29 2009, 10:54 pm

my brother had it and now his wife who is 9mo pg has it too. they were both vaccinated. it's a different strain I believe than the one the vaccine protects against.

amother

Sun, Nov 29 2009, 10:59 pm

yup amother you are right- and I know who you are too Wink

but one is confirmed and 2 others suspected. both have older brothers in yeshiva. I only one and they have a daughter in our girls class.

and morah even those vaccinated are catching it. I wonder why they have not shut down the yeshiva, and or isolated siblings of those who had it.

amother

Sun, Nov 29 2009, 11:08 pm

cuz by the time the mumps show up, it is not contagious anymore. and not everyone gets it. they have not had motzei shabbos learning at the yeshiva in a few weeks now.

The mumps we have came from lakewwod (a boy from the yeshiva spent an off shabbos in lakewood. the dr. he went to here had no idea what was wrong w/ the kid until the frum dr. heard this boy had been in lakewood (he is not from lakewood) and realized that it must be mumps).

There is talk of shutting down the yeshiva. Not sure of details though...........

alpidarkomama

Mon, Nov 30 2009, 4:39 am

Mumps is much more serious in teenagers and young adults than in children, and it is highly contagious! I just checked Medline and people are contagious from a few days before symptoms show up until a week after symptoms begin. It is spread the same ways a cold is.

The effectiveness of a vaccine depends on the body's ability to produce an immune response. In about 5–10% of people, the body does NOT produce an adequate immune response, and that person will not have full immunity to the mumps. Also, if a child never got a second MMR (2 weren't routinely done until 1990s), they are somewhat less likely to have full immunity. B"H, having most of the population vaccinated prevents wide-scale outbreaks. Now only about 1% of the population ever gets the mumps. We've gone from 200,000 cases per year to 1,000. It can cause sterility, among other things. Not something to mess around with.

-alpidarkomama (married to an epidemiologist alpidarkopapa)

amother

Mon, Nov 30 2009, 10:05 pm

well, it seems that there is now one woman who has it. She has 3 young boys and recently at a rosh chodesh party, brought some food, which every one ate.

we have a big school function coming up and about 30 women are cooking things in their homes.
salads, baked goods, main dishes.
would you eat there? one of the women making a salad has sons who currently have mumps.
many others sons had it in the last month.

amother

Mon, Nov 30 2009, 10:30 pm

And my third grade dd told me that her classmate claims to have had it (no corroboration on that though)

By the way, the woman who has it is not 100% sure thats what it is-blood test results will be in next week

Motherof7

Thu, Dec 03 2009, 4:43 pm

When my cousin had the mumps I asked the doctor and just assumed that my kids are ok because they had two MMR, but she said no this mumps is a different variation and they can get it.

My son came home from yeshiva on Monday and said one of his classmates have it. I am just davening that it doesn't come to my house. I heard it lasts up to two weeks and with so many people we could be sick for over a month!

Rubber Ducky

Thu, Dec 03 2009, 5:11 pm

My younger son is in beis medrash in your "smaller city" and he tells me that 13 boys, including his chevrusa, have mumps. The problems with closing the yeshiva to prevent spread of the disease are that
1) Mumps is contagious several days before symptoms show,
2) Some people get the mumps without having any symptoms, and
3) Mumps has a very long incubation period (12- 25 days).

So we'll see what happens next off-Shabbos. Sad

I read on Wikipedia that "The efficacy of the vaccine depends on the strain of the vaccine, but is usually around 80%.The Jeryl Lynn strain is most commonly used in developed countries but has been shown to have reduced efficacy in epidemic situations."

neverbored

Thu, Dec 03 2009, 7:03 pm

amother wrote:

and my 3rd grader just confirmed that her classmate does indeed have mumps.

amother

Thu, Dec 03 2009, 7:24 pm

neverbored wrote:

amother wrote:

and my 3rd grader just confirmed that her classmate does indeed have mumps.

neverbored...are you from this same town that we are talking about?

amother

Thu, Dec 03 2009, 9:31 pm

Rubber Ducky wrote:

hey how'd you know what town I was talking about? Wink

but I know who you are and yes your son goes to yeshiva here.

amother

Thu, Dec 03 2009, 10:35 pm

Are we all talking about Scranton? Just want to clarify...

Why has the school not issued any notices about this? Is it just being brushed aside? Is it because people lied on their immunization forms...saying that the kids had the vaccine, but really didn't. Something is very fishy here. We've talked to a number of health professionals who don't buy that it's a different strain. Or the other theory...the immunization didn't take....well how can it not "take" in an entire family? Easy....people have lied on the forms they send to the school.
"

Rubber Ducky

Thu, Dec 03 2009, 11:38 pm

Amother, thanks for the confirmation that I really do have a duckling in the yeshiva.

My immediate thought when I first heard about it was that some of the boys must not be immunized. But even my very green crunchy raw foods veggie friend, who is otherwise opposed to immunizing her kids, did have her son get the mumps vaccine (without the measles & rubella parts!).

If the yeshiva has about 150 boys and all of them have been vaccinated, and all them have been exposed to this highly infectious disease, well, the vaccine is at best only 80% effective. You would expect that over the course of the epidemic around 30 boys would come down with mumps. From the number of cases seen to date I don't see why you would have to posit either a new strain or parents not immunizing their kids.

amother

Thu, Dec 03 2009, 11:50 pm

Interesting note on the yeshiva boys getting the mumps-kids from every grade-9th thru 5th year bais medresh have gotten the mumps-except the 11th graders (so far, anyway).
ds is in 11th.............