Does anyone have a university or college student home for the holidays? Take the opportunity to review their immunizations.
Mumps is increasing across Canada with outbreaks happening most often among college and university students. Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health encourages all students, and anyone born between 1970 and 1991, to get a shot to prevent mumps.
“In 1996, Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long Term Care revised the immunization schedule to offer a second MMR dose before children entered elementary school. To keep immunizations up-to-date, we offer the second MMR shot as a catch-up for students and anyone born between 1970 and 1991,” said Susan Otten, manager for vaccine preventable disease at WDGPH.
Mumps is highly contagious and spreads through coughing and sneezing, or by direct contact with objects used by an infected person. Symptoms include fever, headache and painful swelling of the parotid glands – salivary glands located at the base of each ear. Typically, a person with mumps is isolated for at least nine days to avoid spreading the infection to others.
WDGPH will offer catch-up clinics for the MMR vaccine at the University of Guelph campus in January and February. Similar clinics are planned at campuses across the Ontario. For information go to www.wdghu.org.
