"Hub-And-Spoke" System May Facilitate Spread Of Illnesses

A mumps outbreak currently sweeping across the Midwest may have been inadvertently spread by two airline passengers traveling on a series of connecting flights, Iowa health officials said Wednesday -- which may signify the potential risk of spreading other diseases, such as bird flu, across the skies.

"These people may have exposed other people on those planes or in these airports," said Kevin Teale, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Public Health.

To date, 515 cases of the mumps have been reported across Iowa, with 43 cases in neighboring Nebraska, 33 in Illinois and four each in Missouri, Wisconsin, and Illinois. One case has also been reported in Minnesota. It is the first such epidemic in 20 years.

In response to the spread of mumps, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) put out an advisory about two Iowa air travelers who may have spread the disease to other states. "Infectious diseases can travel easily on planes and other modes of transportation," said Dr. Jane Seward, acting deputy director of the CDC’s viral diseases division, to the Associated Press.

One of those passengers, Terry Poe Buschkamp, came forward earlier this month, acknowledging to the press she had visited the Dominican Republic earlier this year, where she thinks she may have caught the bug. Buschkamp, executive director of a downtown development organization in Waterloo, IA also visited Washington DC at the end of March.

Buschkamp, 51, flew from Waterloo on March 26 on a Mesaba Airlines flight to Minneapolis, and then caught a Northwest Airlines to Detroit. She then flew to Washington, DC's Reagan National Airport.

She essentially mirrored that path on her trip home to Waterloo on March 29, Buschkamp said, and after she got back home she developed a scratchy throat. When she heard about the mumps outbreak, she went to her doctor.

Six days later, Buschkamp's doctor confirmed she did indeed have the mumps. During those six days, Buschkamp said she interacted with several other people at church and numerous work events, including an April 1 pub crawl with approximately 370 other people, according to the AP.

The second person suspecting of spreading the disease is identified only as a young man returning from vacation in Arizona on April 1, Teale said. The man flew American Airlines from Tucson to Dallas, TX, then on to Fayetteville, AR, St. Louis, MO and finally to Cedar Rapids, IA.

The two cases show the potential risks of most domestic airlines' "hub-and-spoke" system, Teale said. "It’s hard to get anywhere (from Iowa) without connecting," he said about the two cases -- and nine total flights involved.

Mumps is caused by a virus that is spread by coughing and sneezing. It is rarely fatal, with the most common symptoms being fever, headache and swollen salivary glands under the jaw. The illness can lead to more severe problems, however -- such as hearing loss, meningitis and fertility-diminishing swollen testicles, according to the CDC.

A two-dose mumps vaccine is recommended for all children, and is considered highly -- but not completely --effective against the illness.

FMI: www.cdc.gov