01 Dec 2008
SIMCOE MUSKOKA – The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit is hitting college and university campuses throughout Simcoe and Muskoka in January offering mumps immunization to students.
The campaign is part of a province-wide program to ensure that college and university aged individuals are fully immunized against mumps, a viral infection that can cause deafness, meningitis and other serious side effects.
Since 1992, Ontario’s routine immunization program has provided children with two doses of the mumps vaccine, which is given as a combined measles-mumps-rubella vaccine.
Research has indicated that people who received only one vaccine may still be at risk of catching mumps.
Outbreaks of mumps have been on the rise in several provinces in Canada, many of them occurring in the college-aged population. Last year 28 cases linked to an outbreak in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were reported in Ontario and two cases this year have been linked to an outbreak in Alberta. The immunization campaign is taking place in an effort to prevent any larger scale outbreaks in Ontario.
“It’s assumed that most people born before 1970 have had the mumps and are immune,” said Laurie Stanford, manager of the vaccine preventable disease program at the health unit. “But people born between 1970 and 1992 should note that they are at risk and should get the vaccination to maximize their protection.” She added that the vaccine is also available for non-students through health unit offices at their regularly scheduled immunization clinics and through personal health care providers.
The clinics are taking place on college and university campuses because the risk of spread of mumps is highest in these communities, Stanford explained.
“The social scene, the classroom settings and the student residences mean these people are constantly in close quarters with each other, making the spread of infectious diseases much more likely,” she said. “Anyone diagnosed with mumps has to stay isolated for nine days, which no student wants.”
“We hope parents with children in college can encourage them to use the clinics to make sure they have been properly immunized,” Stanford added.
For more information about immunizations, call Your Health Connection at 721-7520 or 1-877-721-7520 during weekdays or visit the health unit website at www.simcoemuskokahealth.org.
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