Charlottesville: Mumps Outbreak

[hawkeye]

Charlottesville: Mumps Outbreak
A mumps outbreak has been declared in the Charlottesville area after more people have tested positive for the disease.

Health officials say tests have confirmed three of the 15 people who developed symptoms of mumps, do in fact have the virus.

Eleven of the 15 possible cases are University of Virginia Students. The first case was reported on September 22nd.

All of the cases involve people who had been vaccinated.

Thomas Jefferson Health District Director Dr. Lilian Peake said, "While vaccination is the best way to prevent the disease, it is not always 100 percent effective. Up to 10- percent of fully vaccinated people may remain susceptible."

Doctors are working to positively identify the other suspected cases.

[hawkeye]

Re: Charlottesville: Mumps Outbreak

Mumps outbreak official
UVa offers quarantine house

By Aaron Kessler / Daily Progress staff writer
October 17, 2006

The University of Virginia now officially has an outbreak of mumps.

The designation comes with the confirmation of three cases of mumps among UVa undergraduates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines a mumps outbreak as three lab-confirmed cases that are shown to be linked - which as of Monday has occurred.

?Yes, we can call it an outbreak now,? said Dr. Lilian Peake, health director for the Thomas Jefferson Health District.

The current number of total mumps cases now rests at 15 for the Charlottesville area, with 11 of those at UVa. Three of those cases are now confirmed, all of which are students at UVa. The first case of mumps was diagnosed on Sept. 22.

Because the first probable cases of mumps were identified among students - and given the recent outbreaks on numerous Midwestern college campuses - health officials have ?reacted as if it were an outbreak from the very beginning,? Peake said

UVa instituted an aggressive campaign to vaccinate its students, and currently 99.6 percent of UVa undergraduates are now vaccinated. Those who have not either received the shots or submitted the necessary paperwork will be barred from registering from spring semester classes.

Dr. James Turner, executive director of Student Health at UVa, said the university will continue to keep close tabs on the situation as it develops.

?We are actively looking for mumps ? and isolating [those cases] as soon as they are discovered,? Turner said.

Turner said the students diagnosed as having mumps are being asked to return home while they recover, if they are within driving distance. He said the CDC recently revised its guidelines for isolating mumps cases, recommending patients be kept away from others for five days, down from nine days. UVa will apply that standard to its mumps patients.

For those who live farther away, UVa has arranged for accommodations at an apartment building near the Student Health office. The apartments, which Turner said are euphemistically dubbed ?Mumps House,? can house the students for the period of isolation.

?Food services brings food to them, and they have Internet access, that kind of thing,? Turner said. ?We?re also in contact with them every day ? to monitor their progress.?

Currently there are two students staying at Mumps House, Turner said.

Contact Aaron Kessler at (434) 964-5476 or akessler@dailyprogress.com.