College Kids Get Mumps Two Years Ago, CDC Freaks Out

An article published in the New England Journal of Medicine this spring detailed what the authors called a "resurgence" of mumps in the United States. The US Department of Health and Human Services in their Healthy People 2010 Initiative had set a goal of eliminating mumps, but an outbreak two years ago in Iowa colleges (of the 6500 + cases, none were fatal) made some medical researchers doubt if the goal was achievable.
The collection of symptoms known as mumps is on a resurgence (because as any good pathologist will tell you, a disease doesn't cause symptoms, per se, but rather the specific reaction of the immune system to being overcome by a certain pathogen is how a "disease" is classified), primarily amongst college-aged adults, despite a doubling over the last twenty years of the number of times those people were vaccinated as children. The most telling line in the journal's abstract: “A more effective mumps vaccine or changes in vaccine policy may be needed to avert future outbreaks and achieve the elimination of mumps.” How should we read that conclusion?
Either: 1) One of the most controversial vaccines on the market, the MMR vaccine, may not work, and if that’s not the case, 2) There may be recommendations to increase the vaccination schedule from two to three shots. Isn’t the colloquial definition of insanity repeating the same thing over and over but expecting different results?
Reference:
Dayan GH, Quinlisk MP, Parker AA, Barskey AE, Harris ML, Hill Schwartz JM, Hunt, K, Finley CG, Leschinsky DP, O'Keefe AL, Clayton J, Kightlinger LK, Dietle EG, Berg J, Kenyon CL, Goldstein ST, Stokley SK, Redd SB, Rota PA, Rota J, Bi D, Roush SW, Bridges CB, Santibanez TA, Parashar U, Bellini WJ, Seward, JF (2008). "Recent Resurgence of Mumps in the United States." New England Journal of Medicine 358 (15), pp 1580-1589.

You are what you eat

This month Pediatric Neurology published a study investigating the effect of nutritional therapy on quadriplegic children (spastic quadriplegia was specifically studied, as in the children with cerebral palsy). Soylu et. al's main findings were an increase in body size and, more importantly, a decrease in the number of lower respiratory tract infections in the study group over a 6 month period.
I remember the wrapper on my hot ham & cheese sandwich at Holling Heights Elementary School in Omaha telling me: "Eat to Live, Live to Eat." While I still doubt their premise (not the eat to live part, but the concept that I cannot go on if I do not eat a hot ham & cheese) I don't discount the "You are what you eat" mantra pushed by every elementary school health teacher. This study supports the adage terrifically. If the body doesn't get the right nutrients, especially in a neuro/immuno compromised situation, how can it function properly? The simple answer is that it can't. Unfortunately there are plenty of non-compromised individuals totally ignoring this, fueling their own propensity for infections. The instructions are simple- put good things in your body, and it makes good you. Put bad things in, it still makes you...
Reference:
Soylu, OB, Unalp, A, Uran, N, Dizdarer, G, Ozgonul, FO, Conku, A, Ataman, H, Oxturk, AA. (2008) "Effect of Nutritional Support in Children With Spastic Quadriplegia." Pediatric Neurology 39 (5) pp 330-334.