Mumps outbreak across the Lower Mainland
Posted June 21, 2011 10:59 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The BC Centre for Disease Control is urging people across the Lower Mainland to check their immunization records as an outbreak of the mumps has hit the region.
The outbreak has been around for several months but centered mostly around Whistler. Dr. Monika Naus says several cases have now popped up in Vancouver, Richmond and in the Fraser Health Authority.
“We have an immunity gap in young adults because our second dose of mumps vaccine started in 1996 for children at 18 months of age. That means people in their late teens and in their 20s have not received a second dose. We do recommend a second dose for everybody born after 1970.”
This is the first mumps outbreak since 2008.
The disease is contagious and spreads through coughing, sneezing, kissing and sharing of items like water bottles. Symptoms include: fever, sore throat, inflammation of the testicles, sterility or serious complications such as deafness.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall says there is enough mumps vaccine to go around.
“I mean we’re targeting the age group of 20 to 30 where more than half of the cases have occurred so far,” he says. “The CDC assures me there is enough.”
He’s reassuring anyone born between 1970 and 1996 will have access to that second shot if they need it. You can get the vaccine for free from your doctor or local health authority.
It’s the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and Kendall says there are still doses in stock from a measles outbreak last year and the last mumps outbreak in 2008.
