Vaccination alert as mumps cases soar
TEENAGERS and young adults are being urged to get vaccinated against mumps after more than 500 people in Sheffield reported falling ill with the disease this year.
In the biggest outbreak the city has seen in four years, 565 young people in Sheffield reported having some symptoms of mumps.
Most cases arose in January to March and more than half were university students aged 19 to 21. They suffered problems such as swollen salivary glands, fever and headaches, swollen testicles and ovaries. In severe cases sufferers can develop viral meningitis and long-term hearing problems.
Dr Rosy McNaught, consultant in communicable disease control at the South Yorkshire Health Protection Agency, said some people in their late teens and early 20s missed out on the mumps vaccine as children, as they were given a combined vaccine for only measles and rubella.
This was because there was not enough of the MMR – measles mumps and rubella – vaccine to go round all age groups at the time.
Other young people had just one of the two recommended doses of MMR, which meant they do not have the maximum possible protection from the diseases.
Dr McNaught urged students and other young adults to get an MMR vaccine if necessary. "People may look funny with a swollen fat face but having mumps is not funny at all. If you have mumps you feel rotten, you don't feel well at all."
Teenagers and young adults are being advised to check that they have had two doses of the MMR vaccination by contacting their GP or practice nurse who can consult the records.
Figures for the whole of South Yorkshire show 105 confirmed cases this year, up from 73 in 2008. The Sheffield mumps cases are higher as they were not all confirmed cases. Most were not tested to see if they had the illness but had reported their symptoms.
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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