Mumps Makes Comeback In Hawaii

The Hawaii State Department of Health issued a warning to residents because cases of mumps continued to rise on the islands.

In an update on its website, the department said it was investigating a rise in the number of cases of mumps throughout Hawaii.

The department confirmed it had logged cases in both children and adults, as well as those who were vaccinated and unvaccinated. Almost 60 percent of cases have been in adults. The department had 12 reports of complications due to mumps infection, including hearing loss. So far in 2017, health officials reported 500 cases, with 409 of them in Honolulu.

The department provided suggestions for residents on how to prevent the spread of the disease:

The best way to prevent mumps is to get vaccinated. The MMR vaccine protects against measles, mumps, and rubella  …  Patients suspected or diagnosed with mumps should self-isolate and avoid going out and exposing others for 9 days after onset of parotitis (swelling of the salivary glands). People who have been exposed to mumps and are not vaccinated should not attend school, work or travel from day 12 through day 25 after exposure.

The U.S. has seen a rise in cases of mumps in 2017, with 4,600 cases reported so far. Health experts recommended a booster dose of the mumps vaccine to prevent outbreaks, regardless of whether people have already had two rounds of vaccines.

“The information is limited although the limited information would indicate that the third dose does reduce your risk of getting the disease,” Dr. William Schaffner, of Vanderbilt University, told NBC News. “It’s a good thing to do. We did it at Vanderbilt. We had a few cases. They targeted one fraternity [with vaccines].

Schaffner went on to explain the process: “When a few cases turned up outside the fraternity, health officials used an approach called ring vaccination — vaccinating everyone in contact with someone who got sick. That stopped our outbreak and we didn’t have any more cases.”

A mumps outbreak was reported at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, with 27 confirmed cases. Despite the outbreak, school officials issued a statement attempting to calm nerves and clarify their efforts to control the situation.

“There is no reason to leave campus and no reason to be alarmed. The University is taking aggressive action to educate the campus community about prevention and treatment,” the university wrote in a statement.

Sources: State Of Hawaii Disease Outbreak Control Division, NBC News / Featured Image: Senior Airman Areca T. Wilson/Laughlin Air Force Base/U.S. Air Force / Embedded Images: CDC (2)