cbs4 health specialist cathy walsh live at denver health where the outbreak was discovered. cathy, do we know where it originated? >>reporter: karen, health experts have linked it to an outbreak in iowa. and while six cases may not seem like many, we usually only have about 2 a year in denver. and in all six of the cases, the people had been vaccinated. the mumps cases were discovered urgent care clinic. in late january, three friends came in feeling sick. >> all had jaw swelling, in this region, which is pretty common for mumps. they also had low grade temperatures and just felt bad. >>reporter: health investigators believe the source of the infection is a person who recently moved to colorado from iowa. where there's been a mumps outbreak since july 2015. that person is thought to have spread the virus to the three friends. and two healthcare workers who treated them at the clinic, then developed symptoms. >> not having a high awareness, that mumps is in the community, leads to other spreads. >>reporter: you may think if you've been vaccinated against the disease, no worrie

health specialist cathy walsh joins us now. a couple from thornton had to cancel a nonrefundable trip. >> back in april, they planned for the trip, but they didn't plan for michele to get pregnant or for puerto rico to be a hot spot for the zika virus. >> said it was excellent. >>reporter: alex and michele had big plans for a family get away. they were going to pack up little jackson, and catch a plane to a resort in puerto rico. but they will only see it in pictures. >> bedecided not to -- we >>reporter: there are warning about the zika virus, it affects more than 20 countrys and territory, including puerto rico. it's been linked to a devastating birth defect. a zung --. so they asked travel lossty for a refund or at least a credit. >> could they do anything? >> nonrefundable and nons >>reporter: out $1600. alex contacted cbs4. called them, and while we were e-mail. it promises a full refund once they send a doctor's note. >> high five. >> all right. >>reporter: lessons learned. read the fine print. and a little help can't hur

and we're all very jealous of our cathy walsh, cathy was at dia earlier today and cathy, yoy had a great up close look when they got off of the plane, very exciting. >> oh, very, very exciting, and you know what, jim, they were celebrating, i think they're still running on adrenaline. they arrived here at about 3:45 in the afternoon, and they made one big splash. dia fire trucks sprayed water arch over the plane, and that's a fitting welcome for world champions. the pilot was fired up, waves a broncos flag out of the cockpit windows. others were wanting to show off the blink, c.j. anderson walked it along the row of o media and the champs back. coach gary kubiak, now, we didn't see peyton manning, or mvp von miller, i imagine they are in demand can and may be returning a little bit later. so the broncos are back, i say >> okay. thank you for that segue. >>> the city is preparing to throw a huge party tomorrow, a welcome home and congratulationses to the bronco players and staff, that parade she mentioned set to kick off at 17th, right across from union station. the team will head up to 7

cbs 4 health specialist cathy walsh join us with the troubling trend. >> to others not really. it's got the director of state health pretty concerned. he believes a good way, however, to prevent smoking is to make cigarettes more expensive. from camels to cools, you'll find a wide selection of cigarettes at this smoker-friendly store. >> is business good in. >> business is very good. >>reporter: state sales numbers back that up, the colorado p department of public health, more than 194 million packs of cigarettes were sold in this state in 2015. that's up from 2014 by more than and it's the first increase in state cigarette sales in nearly a decade. >> does ma mean more people -- that mean more people are smoking? >> our numbers say there are fewer people smoking. but the trend is starting to kind of fall off a bit. >>reporter: state health director doctor larry wolf is concerned. that more cigarettes being sold means more people may be lighting up in the next few years. he blames the price of a pack. in 2005, voters raised the cigarette tax and sales plummeted. ten years later

cathy walsh, cbs4 news. >>> beautiful. kathy, thank you. it is ground hog's day, did you see your shadow. >> i did not see my shadow, six more weeks of unlimited bread sticks. there you go. can't go wrong with that. here's the system. you can see we had the system here, it's pulled off to the east. heavy snows to the east in the great lakes region. showers and thunderstorms being pulled up from the gulf and look at this, the yellow area, tornado watch, and you can see the little squares here, watch right there. that's a tornado warning in effect right now, so very heavy storms with this. and it pushes all of the moisture into the cold air and they've got a lot of snow as a result. we're going to have high pressure for one nice day or two and then here comes another little system, friday morning, more snow showers around here. when do they arrive? rush hour. an avalanche warning through 6:00 a.m. on wednesday, because of all of the snow. that we have had. now, some people said this storm was a dud. you might have read an article i want to sh

cbs 4 health specialist cathy walsh joins us now. >> there's a lot of work to be done here, karen, the nation's leading medical experts say it will spread to a significant number of cases in the united states. the experts are pressing for 1.8 billion dollars in emergency aid. >> there's the enemy. >>reporter: the nation's top health officials gave lawmakers a graphic description of the ver rashs mosquito behind the zika virus. >> it can bite four or five people in the course of one blood meal. meaning it can spread disease quite quickly. >>reporter: 80% of people who get zika don't show symptoms, but the cdc director revealed the virus has been linked to the birth defect through brain tissue of two infants in brazil. who died. >> this is the strongest evidence to date that zika is >>reporter: he says the cdc is working around the clock to research, inform the public, and reduce the risk to pregnant women. >> zika virus is new. >>reporter: president barack obama has asked for emergency funding of nearly 2 billion dollars to fight t zika. the head of the national institute of allergieses