Iowa, Illinois and other midwestern states appear to be in the grip of a mumps outbreak. The CDC reports that more than 600 people have been infected by just two carriers of the virus. Two infected people on two separate airplanes.
That fact alone demonstrates how easy it is these days for a virus to travel from one country to another, from one state to another, in hours.
In fact, most travelers who are infected with a virus don’t even know it until it’s too late. One of the mumps carriers actually had a test by her own physician before she left on her trip. While she was on her trip, her test results came back positive. Too late. She had already exposed hundreds of people on her flight, and in half dozen airports.
The mumps virus can easily spread through sneezing, coughing and even laughing, so it’s easy to understand how two airline passengers could cause an epidemic. Strange thing is, those two passengers who may have infected hundreds of people told the CDC that they did indeed have vaccinations for mumps.
But we don’t really need to know the reason why the outbreak is happening, what we need to know is how can we protect...