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Mumps Breakout in Ohio State University Spreads To the Community
- Updated: March 26, 2014
Sixteen students from the Ohio State University suffered a breakout from mumps two weeks ago. This breakout has now spread to more students and even local members of the community in areas surrounding the school. Approximately sixty-three people in Columbus so far have been struck with mumps and four of them have been admitted to hospitals for extended medical attention. Out of these numbers there are about 41 students, staff and even family members of the Ohio State University. Four who have been affected are members of the local community with links to OSU. Then there’s the baffling situation of 18 people in Franklin County who have contracted mumps without a link to the OSU community.
“These 18 cases are not linked to the university outbreak, or to each other,” said Columbus Public Health spokesman Jose Rodriguez. “That is what prompted us to declare a community outbreak.” The department of Columbus Public Health has sent out a warning that if any member of the faculty, family members and students connected with the OSU have not had their mumps shots, they need to do so immediately.
The vaccination is highly effective, though it doesn’t guarantee the riddance of the disease. “This is a very contagious disease, a respiratory disease that’s spread like the cold or the flu,” said Dr. Frank Esper, an infectious disease expert at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital. “We see substantial transmission on college campuses where you bring numerous people together from a wide geographic area in a small space.”
The last time such an outbreak of mumps occurred in 2009-2010. This infection was spread by a boy, who had contracted the disease on a trip to the UK. He then carried the disease and affected people at a summer camp in NY. Spreading like wild fire, the disease affected more than fifteen hundred people.
