#28 – Mumps: Why the Vaccine Is Faltering and Cases Are Rising

This time it's a virus that has circulated in humans for millennia: mumps virus. Florian Krammer explains why this paramyxovirus is related to measles and the dangerous Nipah virus, how the infection unfolds, and why it's usually mild but can cause serious complications including inflammation of the testicles, brain, or pancreas. The episode traces the history from Hippocrates to its identification as a viral disease in 1934, along with the story of how Merck researcher Maurice Hilleman developed the vaccine still used today from a swab of his own sick daughter. The MMR vaccine brought mumps close to elimination, but vaccine hesitancy, waning immunity, and viral evolution are pushing case numbers back up worldwide. The Maurice Hilleman biography mentioned in this episode: https://nihlibrary.overdrive.com/media/134323 Picture of a child with the typical mumps swelling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumps#/media/File:Mumps_PHIL_130_lores.jpg US CDC mumps information page: https://www.cdc.gov/mumps/hcp/clinical-overview/index.html +++++ You can support the podcast via our German Steady page: https://steady.page/virologisch/ Questions, feedback or topic suggestions? Feel free to contact us at: virological@podcastwerkstatt.com +++++ Krammer laboratory information Krammer Laboratory at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai https://labs.icahn.mssm.edu/krammerlab/ Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Science Outreach and Pandemic Preparedness https://soap.lbg.ac.at/ Ignaz Semmelweis Institute https://semmelweisinstitute.ac.at/ +++++ Conflict of interest statement The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has filed patent applications relating to influenza virus vaccines and therapeutics, SARS-CoV-2 serological assays and NDV-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccines which name me as inventor. Mount Sinai has spun out a company, CastleVax, to commercialize NDV-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and I am named as co-founder and scientific advisory board member of that company. I have previously consulted for Curevac, Merck, Gritstone, Sanofi, Seqirus, GSK and Pfizer and I am currently consulting for 3rd Rock Ventures (US) and Avimex (Mexico). My laboratory has been collaborating in the past with Pfizer on animal models of SARS-CoV-2 and with GlaxoSmithKline and VIR on the development of influenza virus vaccines and therapeutics and we are currently collaborating with Dynavax, Inspirevax and Inimmune on development of influenza virus vaccines. My work in the on immunity and infectious diseases in the US is supported by the National Institutes of Health, but also by FluLab and Tito’s Handmade Vodka. In the past I have also received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, PATH and the US Department of Defense. My work in Austria is supported by the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft and by the Ignaz Semmelweis Institute through the Medical University of Vienna.