UVA officials aren’t ready to sound the “outbreak” alarm yet, but with five new suspected mumps cases reported over the past week—bringing the total to seven unconfirmed cases on campus—there’s a high level of unease as other mumps reports emerge in the Charlottesville area.
“We’re still on an aggressive campaign to get the rest of the students [vaccinated],” says University spokesman Jeff Hanna, noting the students received three separate e-mail alerts, were phoned at least once, and had professors discuss the urgency with them in classes. “We really hope that students take these cautions to heart.”
Of the nearly 1,500 delinquents who hadn’t returned required pre-entrance health forms as of September 22—when it was announced that a freshman engineering student had likely contracted mumps—UVA is still awaiting 209 updated student vaccination records. Of those, 55 are undergraduates and, because the seven thought to have contracted mumps are undergrads, Hanna said UVA health officials are “very much interested in getting them cleared.” Undergraduate students have until November 6 to turn in the updated health forms—otherwise, under campus policy, they won’t be eligible to register for second semester classes. Graduate students have an even earlier deadline of October 30.
The University is working in conjunction with the Thomas Jefferson Health District, which announced that five other probable mumps cases have turned up, including one at Albemarle County’s Cale Elementary School. Dr. Lillian Peake, the district’s health director, is urging that UVA continue its aggressive course of action in seeing that students are properly vaccinated.
No links between the seven University cases have been found so far, and all of those students had been vaccinated. Because of this, the chance for a positive test result confirming mumps is highly diminished. Immunization is only 95 percent protective, but will minimize serious complication should that person contract the virus.
The mumps outbreak that started on college campuses in Iowa earlier this year has since spread to seven other states nationwide. Mumps is a viral illness that can cause meningitis or encephalitis. Fever, muscle aches and headache are symptoms, and visible signs of the virus include swelling of the glands, though by that time the carrier would have been contagious for days.—Burke Speaker
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