Dr. James C. Turner, executive Director of student health, and the rest of his staff have been working hard the past week because of a potential mumps outbreak- but many students have yet to heed the warnings.
Two recent mumps cases have sounded the medical alarms at UVA, and an additional Charlottesville-area resident has been diagnosed with what is probably the mumps. Four other potential cases that don’t show the typical symptoms are being investigated, according to Dr. Lilian Peake, health director for Thomas Jefferson Health District.
Despite an aggressive communications blitz by UVA, officials failed to corral more than 600 of the targeted 1,149 students by the September 26 deadline into getting recommended vaccines or providing required health records. UVA had previously announced that students without their measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations could face temporary expulsion, though administrators rescinded the threat after reevaluating the situation.
“That was set for extreme measures—if we had a true outbreak,” says University spokeswoman Carol Wood.
Following the first probable case, reported September 22, a steady flow of University students rushing to file vaccination records turned into merely a trickle by the initial deadline September 26, when we visited the Student Health Center. Most students didn’t even have to wait in line; staffers indicated that the faxes got most of the workout.
But a second student was diagnosed with a probable case of mumps September 27. “As with the previous student, she had been vaccinated for mumps, so it’s a mild case,” says Wood. “The student had been walking around with it for nine days, so it’s past the stage of [being contagious].” Free vaccines are available for those who have had close contact with either student.
Mumps, a relatively contagious virus spread via infected saliva, causes swollen glands, headache and fever—though it can lead to viral meningitis, and, in extremely rare cases, encephalitis.
For students who stopped at the Student Health Center last week, the threat was real. “I think I got three or four e-mails from the University, and my teachers reminded me often,” says 20-year-old Shehab Badawi, a third-year exchange student from Egypt. “And they got me worried, too.” Yet, by press time, 500 students still hadn’t submitted forms or completed vaccinations.
UVA’s cases are the latest in a mumps outbreak that began on Iowa campuses in January, rapidly spreading to more than 4,000 suspected cases in seven other states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.—Burke Speaker
