Along with the usual junk mail and spam, University of Wisconsin students will find in their inboxes this morning an e-mail warning them about the mumps.
As of Monday, there were 23 laboratory confirmed cases of the mumps in Wisconsin, and though there have been no reported cases at UW, University Health Services officials say it is likely UW may see its first case soon.
"It is only matter of time," Kathy Poi, executive director of UHS said. "The good news is that we only have three weeks left this semester, and hopefully that will help prevent a major outbreak here."
In order to make students, faculty and staff more aware of the potential threat of mumps, UHS sent the e-mail, which tells of the symptoms of mumps and also how to protect against getting the virus.
"The main message [in the e-mail] is that everybody in the university community needs to ensure that they are immune — if they have been immunized, were born before 1957 or had mumps as a child," Craig Roberts, a UW epidemiologist, said.
He added that any person who has not been vaccinated or only received one of the two required shots should get vaccinated against the virus as soon as possible.
Mumps is most known for causing swelling of the salivary glands, headache, fever, fatigue and loss of appetite, according to a Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS) release.
Both Poi and Roberts noted that though most students have been protected from getting the mumps through vaccination, all UW students, faculty and staff should check their vaccination records to be absolutely certain.
Under current state law, children enrolling in kindergarten are required to be up-to-date with their measles-mumps-rubella vaccines. However, the first MMR vaccine — which is usually given to infants 12 to 15 months of age — is about 80 percent effective at preventing mumps while the second vaccine provides 90 to 95 percent protection.
"Our suspicion is that most of our students have been vaccinated, but there is still that around 5 percent that will be vulnerable," Poi said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, the current outbreak of mumps began in December in Iowa, and now at least seven other states have confirmed cases of the virus. As of Monday, three confirmed cases of mumps were reported in Dane County, DHFS reported.
And there are now more than 800 cases of mumps in Iowa, and more than 1,000 in the U.S, according to the CDC.
DHFS spokesperson Stephanie Marquis said Wisconsin is doing everything it can to keep tabs on the virus to stop it from spreading.
"What we are doing … is to monitor diseases, not only in the state, but in the nation and the world," Marquis said. "We are working with local health departments, state experts and infection control specialists to make sure we can prevent the spread of mumps in the state."
But residents can also help prevent the spread of mumps themselves by practicing good hygiene, Marquis added.
The area of most concern to the state right now, Marquis said, is in the counties bordering Iowa, as 11 of the 23 total confirmed cases in Wisconsin are in Grant County.
"We want to make sure if someone has been exposed to the mumps and hasn't been vaccinated or is not sure, that they get vaccinated and protected," Marquis said, noting that having an additional MMR vaccine would not be harmful in any way.
