UC Berkeley Mumps Outbreak Prompts USC Warning

USC issued an e-mail to all students Wednesday morning, following a mumps outbreak at the University of California at Berkeley. There have not been any reported cases at USC, but the warning was issued ahead of Thursday night's football game at Cal.

(Image courtesy Associated Press)

The e-mailed stated, "If you are going  to Berkeley for the game, please enjoy the festivities and the game, but note that mumps is an infection that is transmitted through respiratory droplets i.e. sharing drinks, cigarettes, towels or being coughed on."

USC has a mandatory vaccination policy against measles and mumps. Students are requires to have two rounds of the MMR (Measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine.

The outbreak at UC Berkely began last Friday. Lab test reports revealed on Tuesday that there are nine confirmed and 23 suspected cases of mumps at UC Berkeley.

According to the Center for Disease Control, symptoms of mumps usually include fever, headache, muscles aches, tiredness, swollen glands under ears, jaw or tongue. In males, the disease can cause painful, swollen testicles and in some cases impaired fertitlity.

Most people with mumps fully recover after a few weeks. The rarest cases for mumps can lead to sterility, temporary loss of hearing, and inflammation of the protective membranes.

"It probably did start from somebody, it's hard to say," said Dr. Brad Buchman, medical director at UC Berkeley. "It's all speculation, but the State of California Department of Public Health has announced that it looks like an early case was traveling in Europe and England where a lot of people are not vaccinated and were around some people who weren't sick and came back and got sick once they got here to Berkeley,"

All UC Berkeley students will be allowed a free vaccination at their schedule FLU/MMR Vaccination Clinic on Friday, October 14. The university is taking neccesary steps to fight the spread of mumps by allowing students to take an additional dose of MMR, regardless of their vaccination status.

"We've had our first mumps Vaccination Clinic Friday and we gave out about over 900 doses of mumps vaccines. We had our second clinic yesterday and we gave 965 doses. We probably have close to over 1900 doses within the past five days," said Dr. Buchman.

To protect themselves, students should ensure they are vaccinated, wash their hands, cover their coughs, not share untensils, and avoid close contacts with anyone who is ill.

It is highly advised that all students with symptoms of mumps stay away from others to avoid spreading through contact.

While most people born before 1957 have had mumps and are immune to it, and most people who have had two doses of MMR vaccine are protected, there is still a 5-10% possibility of getting mumps.