America's North Shore Journal

Those of us in the Baby Boom generation know mumps as one of several childhood illnesses that we all got. Mumps, German measles, measles and chicken pox were illnesses that nearly all of us had contracted by the time we were ten or eleven. All of these diseases now have vaccines, and in New York State, you must have been vaccinated for them before being allowed into school. Vaccines are funny things. They are intended to provoke an immune response so that when the real germ arrives, your body responds and prevents the illness. Maybe it’s people who are funny, because every vaccine does not work in all of the people. The mumps vaccine seems to be effective in only 79% to 95% of patients. Segue to late June 2009, at a … Read entire article »