County retracts mumps diagnoses.

Byline: Matt Cooper The Register-Guard

In a surprising misdiagnosis, public health officials said Friday that almost none of the cases of illness in Lane County and statewide this year previously thought to be mumps can be confirmed as such.

Officials also said that whatever the bug is, it may be less dangerous than mumps because it doesn't spread as quickly.

Lane County health officials had tallied 38 local cases of what they thought had been confirmed as mumps. All told, the state had counted 53 cases confirmed as mumps and five more presumed to be mumps, said Dr. Paul Cieslak, head of the communicable disease program for the state Department of Human Services.

But thanks to additional testing, only one of those 58 cases ultimately was confirmed as mumps - the case was in Hood River County - and all the rest cannot be confirmed as such, Cieslak said.

"It's fair to call it a misdiagnosis," he said. "We said `positive' for mumps, and it looks like `not positive' for mumps. It's probably a grab bag of other viral infections that we're less concerned about."

Cieslak said there must be something wrong with the state's testing system and that human error wasn't a factor - initial testing read "positive" for mumps. But after another round of testing by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mumps could only be confirmed in the one case, Cieslak said.

Mumps, spread through coughs and sneezes, is a potentially fatal viral infection of the salivary glands that can cause sterility in men. Once a common childhood disease, it has been all but eliminated through vaccination. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle ache and swelling of the glands close to the jaw.

Local patients experienced very similar symptoms since the first reports of illness in early May, although most of them have recovered by now, said Betsy Meredith, communicable disease nursing supervisor for Lane County Public Health.

She said the news may be reassuring for health officials, because it may mean mumps vaccinations are still effective - they just weren't fighting cases of mumps.

Patients who have questions should call their health care provider. Oregon public health laboratory and epidemiology staff are working with the CDC to resolve the issue, which is specific to mumps testing and unrelated to other lab testing processes, Cieslak said.

Health officials have begun notifying doctors to tell their patients about the mistake.

As the fear of mumps grew, state health officials put mumps back on the list of diseases that doctors must report to public health authorities - starting today - and the requirement stands, Cieslak said.

Officials say the best way to slow the spread of disease is by following common sense personal hygiene: covering coughs, staying home with a fever and washing hands.

For more information, call Lane County Public Health at 682-4041.