MMWR

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

1. Update: Mumps Outbreak – New York and New Jersey, June 2009-January 2010

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CDC Division of Media Relations
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While the mumps vaccine has greatly reduced the burden of disease in the United States (from 186,000 reported cases in 1967 to fewer than 500 per year in the early 2000s), limited mumps outbreaks may occur especially in settings of high disease transmission. Though MMR vaccine likely has prevented thousands of additional cases in this outbreak as well as lowering the rate of complications, clinicians and public health officials should be aware that mumps can still occur in highly vaccinated populations. Maintaining high immunization coverage with the recommended doses of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine remains the most effective means of preventing outbreaks and in limiting the size of outbreaks when they do occur. Other things people can do to help prevent the spread of mumps and other infections include washing hands well and often with soap, and teaching children to wash their hands too, not sharing eating utensils, and cleaning surfaces that are frequently touched (such as toys, doorknobs, tables, counters, etc.) regularly with soap and water or with cleaning wipes. An outbreak of mumps, which began in a summer camp in Upstate New York last summer, has now grown to include 1,521 cases in New York City (predominantly Brooklyn), New Jersey, and two counties in Upstate New York. The cases are almost exclusively among members of tradition-observant Jewish communities, with fewer than 3 percent of cases occurring outside these communities. Many of the cases are occurring in school-aged children, particularly boys, who have been vaccinated with one or two doses of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine though cases have also occurred in persons who are unvaccinated or who have received one dose of MMR vaccine.

2. Transmission of Yellow Fever Vaccine Virus Through Breast-Feeding – Brazil, 2009

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CDC Division of Media Relations
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Breast-feeding women should not receive yellow fever vaccine except in situations where exposure to yellow fever viruses cannot be avoided or postponed. Yellow fever is a potentially fatal mosquito-borne hemorrhagic fever that is endemic in tropical regions of Africa and South America. Yellow fever vaccine is recommended for persons living in and traveling to endemic areas. The vaccine is highly effective. However, the findings in this report indicate that yellow fever vaccine virus can be transmitted to infants via breast-feeding. The breastfed infant in this report required hospitalization for encephalitis (acute inflammation of the brain) after her mother received yellow fever vaccine. Breast-feeding women should not receive yellow fever vaccine except in situations where exposure to yellow fever viruses cannot be avoided or postponed.

3. Progress in Immunization Information Systems – United States, 2008

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CDC Division of Media Relations
(404) 639-3286

Enhanced interoperability between electronic health record systems and Immunization Information Systems’ (IIS) can improve 1) the completeness of immunization histories available to clinicians and public health practitioners, 2) the timeliness of immunization data submission to IISs, 3) the quality of IIS coverage assessments, and 4) the data available to other public health systems. High-quality immunization data is critical to effective IIS use by health-care providers for clinical decision support and for state/local immunization programs in designing interventions to increase vaccination coverage in the population. Implementation of electronic vaccination data exchange standards will be necessary for creating an information-sharing environment between Immunization Information Systems and Electronic Health Record systems that can ensure high-quality vaccine data is available to health-care providers at the point of care.

 

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES