Prevention encouraged for campus after mumps diagnosis

Prevention steps are being encouraged after a 20-year-old undergraduate was diagnosed with the first case of mumps to appear in the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus community.

The student lives in an off-campus apartment. Additional details about the student’s case are protected under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

University Health Services (UHS) has been working with city and state health officials to limit the spread of mumps in Madison, says Craig Roberts, UHS epidemiologist. Persons potentially exposed to the ill student are being contacted to verify their vaccination status.

In the last 24 hours, all students, faculty and staff received email from UHS with detailed prevention information.

Specifically, all UW–Madison students, faculty and staff should have received two doses of mumps vaccine (MMR). Unvaccinated persons born before 1957 or who have had physician confirmed mumps illness are also considered immune.

Persons who have already had two doses of vaccine do not need to take any further action. Routine blood tests to check for mumps immunity are not necessary.

Students who have not previously received two doses of vaccine should contact a health care provider or UHS to schedule an immunization.

Faculty and staff are encouraged to directly contact a health care provider to schedule any needed immunizations.

In addition, regular hand washing and covering a cough are encouraged as prevention steps.

Persons diagnosed with mumps at UW–Madison will not be permitted to attend classes and labs, attend work or enter childcare facilities. Anyone who contracts mumps will be asked to isolate themselves until they no longer are contagious.

The Offices of the Dean of Students will help make accommodations for any student affected by the disease.

“Our first priority is for students to be healthy,” says interim Dean of Students Lori Berquam. “ODOS staff will work with professors to reschedule end-of-semester exams and papers, if needed.”

Mumps is an acute viral illness and is spread from person to person through the air or by direct contact with saliva or infected droplets.

Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pain and a general feeling of discomfort. Commonly the cheek and jaw area (salivary glands) swells on one or both sides within the first two days of illness.

Mumps is contagious for three to five days before symptoms appear, and up to nine days after the onset of salivary glands swelling. Mumps can develop in susceptible exposed individuals from 12 to 25 days after exposure.

An outbreak of mumps in Iowa has spread to several states in the Midwest, including Wisconsin. Many of these cases have occurred in campus communities such as the University of Iowa and the UW-Milwaukee and affected students, faculty and staff who have previously received mumps vaccine.

If you are a student experiencing the symptoms described above, please call UHS at (608) 265-5600 to schedule an appointment with a health care provider.