Science & Health: Mumps eruptions multiply among Iowa college students
By Sarah Martin
April 4, 2006 9:00 p.m.
A recent outbreak of mumps concentrated among college-age
students in Iowa has many young adults, doctors and administrators
across the country concerned.
As of Monday, there were 245 confirmed cases of mumps in Iowa,
21 percent of which were infections among college students,
according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. The virus is
also beginning to spread to states nearby.
“Up until this outbreak, there are approximately 200 cases
of mumps a year in the U.S. Now there have been over 200 in Iowa
this year,” said Dr. Michael Rodriguez, associate professor
of family medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine.
Since mumps is a virus, students without an immunization are
susceptible to it.
“Outbreaks happen among people who did not have the
vaccination. For college students living in close quarters like the
dorms, viruses like mumps can be spread quickly between those
susceptible,” Rodriguez said.
Symptoms do not normally appear until two or three weeks after a
person is exposed to the virus, which can increase its spread.
“The way to tell if you may have mumps is fever, headache
and swollen salivary glands,” Rodriguez said.
Mumps can be spread through airborne transmission, by droplets
spreading from cough, or by saliva from shared cups or utensils,
said Robert Kim-Farley, professor of epidemiology at the UCLA
School of Public Health.
“College students who are close together in large
classrooms, residence halls or common dinning rooms have a higher
chance of transmission,” Kim-Farley said.
Doctors recommend receiving two doses of the measles, mumps and
rubella vaccine, one when infants are between 12 to 15 months of
age and again between the ages of 3 and 6 years old or before
children start attending school, according to the Iowa Department
of Public Health.
But immunization does not guarantee that a person will not get
the virus.
“The Iowa Department of Public Health is looking at why so
many people who were immunized still contract mumps,”
Rodriguez said.
One theory is that these patients represent the portion of the
population for whom vaccination is ineffective.
“It was thought that immunization was 95 percent effective
if people had two doses of the MMR vaccine. … The folks
developing mumps may be the five percent (for which) the vaccine
may not be effective,” Rodriguez said.
UCLA currently only requires hepatitis B immunization for
entering students aged 18 and younger. Many professional schools
such as the medical and nursing schools require more extensive
immunizations, said nurse practitioner Evi Desser of the UCLA
Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center.
“Students should take this opportunity to look into their
own records, to make sure they have had all their
immunizations,” she added.
Students can get their records from their pediatricians or
through their high schools if they attended school in
California.
“Primary and secondary schools in California are required
to check their students’ immunizations. Students should
therefore be able to get their California certificates of
vaccination from their high schools,” Desser said.
If students want or need vaccinations, they can make
appointments online with the immunization center at the Ashe
Center. The cost of the combined MMR vaccine is about $51 depending
on insurance coverage.
The Ashe Center also offers the TITER test, which is a blood
test to check for immunization.
Rodriguez said the mumps virus is rarely fatal.
“The likelihood of death is extremely rare, although one
side effect of mumps can be meningitis, which infects the brain and
spinal cord. If someone were to also have a suppressed immune
system, mumps could be threatening,” Rodriguez said.
There can be serious complications, including hearing loss.
Also, 20 to 30 percent of males who have reached puberty can
develop orchitis, a painful swelling of the testicles, Rodriguez
said.
He added that it is possible that some of the infected Iowa
patients “fell through the cracks,” or came from
countries that do not require everyone to be immunized.
In order to control the spread of future outbreaks, universities
may want to re-examine their students’ immunization records,
Kim-Farley said.
“Schools might start to make sure students have had their
second dose of MMR,” he said.
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