By Lara Fominoff @fomsy1 on Twitter

Alberta Health Services awaits “second wave” of mumps cases in southern Alberta

Mar 1, 2017 | 9:57 AM

LETHBRIDGE – “We are awaiting the second wave of mumps transmission to be occurring in the very near future.” 
That somewhat ominous prediction comes from Dr. Vivian Suttorp;  the Lead Medical Officer of Health for Alberta Health Services – south zone.

So far in Alberta, there have been 17 reported cases of the mumps; a vaccine -preventable disease that has no treatment. More than half of those cases have been tied directly to the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers, whose players were exposed to a Brandon Wheat Kings team member suffering from the disease.
Suttorp says with the volume of exposure not only from player to player, but also to friends, relatives, fans and many others, it’s almost inevitable that more cases will pop up soon.

“The incubation period ( the period after being exposed to developing symptoms) is anywhere from 10 days, up to 25 days. So it can be quite some time.”

She says the other thing to consider is, that some people could have mild symptoms. Only about 30% of those infected, show the classic swelling of the facial glands, or “chipmunk cheeks,” so AHS may not know about everyone that’s been infected.
On the flip side, Suttorp cautions that there can be some very serious complications from mumps.

“Some of these complications are very unpleasant and may have lifelong effects. Those include hearing loss or deafness, and again there is no treatment for this. Some people get meningitis or inflammation/infection of the tissue around the brain. Some people have inflammation of the testicles or ovaries… which can be very painful and can long-term consequences as well.”

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AHS has sent out noticies to local school districts, informing them of the potential for the disease to spread, and urging parents and guardians to not only ensure their children are vaccinated, but to also make sure their own vaccinations are up to date.
“It’s similar to when we had a measles out break,” Suttorp says, “We encourage people to get immunized before the wave hits. It takes a bit for the vaccine to take effect.”

The last large mumps outbreak in the Lethbridge area was in 2007/2008. Suttorp says if people have not been exposed to the disease through vaccine or natural exposure, “we have 10 or 11 years of population that aren’t immune…. so we could be in this for months and months.”
 

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