Vancouver Coastal Health is urging vaccination after three cases of mumps were confirmed among the student population at UBC’s Sauder School of Business.
In a letter to students and faculty in the Bachelor of Commerce program, medical health officer Dr. Althea Hayden said, “you may have been exposed to mumps at your school.”
Coverage of mumps on Globalnews.ca:
Mumps, she said, is a “viral illness that usually causes fever and swelling of the salivary glands (glands under your chin and around your neck).”
It’s a virus that is transmitted through saliva (ie. kissing, drinks, cigarettes) or through close face-to-face contact.
The sickness materializes 16 to 18 days after you catch the virus, Hayden added, and anyone who suspects they have it is encouraged to stay home from work.
Hayden warned anyone who was born in or after the year 1970 that they would need two doses of vaccine to prevent mumps.
“Most people born between 1970 and 1996 have not had two doses of mumps containing vaccine even if they had all their childhood and school vaccinations,” she wrote.
“If you are in this age group, we recommend that you receive a measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, unless you have a record of two doses of mumps vaccine (often part of MMR vaccine).”
READ MORE: B.C. mumps outbreak a problem for young adults
The news of mumps being discovered at UBC comes months after VCH warned people about 13 new cases of the illness being found across the region in August, and 80 since February.
These numbers were above the average of 32 illnesses every year between 2011 and 2015.
- With files from The Canadian Press