Mumps Outbreak in Canada

A couple of Mumps cases in Nova Scotia has ballooned to 300 cases in Toronto. Once again I'm left with the question, "didn't we all get a vaccine against mumps?"

Looks like North America needs its booster shots... Here's the full story from Reuters:

"TORONTO (Reuters) - Health officials have issued a warning on an outbreak of mumps that has already infected three people in Toronto and could hit hundreds more, the city's public health agency said on Wednesday.

The three confirmed cases occurred after two university students returned to Toronto from the east coast city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and passed it to one of their friends. That person then unknowingly exposed about 300 others to the virus at a busy downtown Toronto bar last week, Toronto Public Health officials said.

The health agency has issued a warning for those people to be on the lookout for signs and symptoms of the disease.

A serious mumps outbreak in Eastern Canada has prompted health officials there to look into plans for a vaccination program.

The mumps is not usually a serious illness, but it can cause meningitis, hearing loss and orchitis (inflammation of the testicles). Women who get the illness in the first three months of pregnancy can also miscarry.

The highly contagious disease has previously broken out in Eastern Canada and the U.S. Midwest.

Canada's outbreak began in Nova Scotia in February where so far 222 people have been infected. Overall, nine cases have been confirmed in Ontario."

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So, before this there was no mumps vaccination program? What the hell is the MMR good for if you don't use it? Not that it appears particularly good anyway, seeing as it seems to wear off just as you're gaining your freshman fifteen...

Now that all the old diseases are coming back, I think we should start giving them the good ol' names as well. I think we should start calling mumps "the French Canadian Disease." French Canadians can call it "the American Disease" and the British can call it "the Colonial Disease."

Now all we need is some drug-resistant syphilis and a return to Imperial rule! Weeee! Break open the scotch boys, we got some spirochetes to engineer!