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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Washington Post’s Lena Sun reports: Federal health officials are evaluating the benefit of an additional dose of mumps vaccine because of the increasing number of mumps outbreaks since 2006. More than 5,000 cases of the contagious viral illness were reported last year in the United States, the most in a decade.
Among the numerous outbreaks in recent years, 19 occurred last year at college campuses. Arkansas has been battling an outbreak that began in one community last summer and has since infected 2,815 people, the largest ever recorded in that state.
Unlike outbreaks of measles and whooping cough, which have taken place in populations with significant numbers of unvaccinated people, the mumps outbreaks have been occurring in communities with high rates of immunization and residents who often have received both recommended doses of the vaccine.
Federal officials said Thursday that they are looking into whether mumps immunity decreases over time and whether there would be benefits to a third dose. State and local health authorities are particularly interested in that additional shot as a preventive measure, Mona Marin told the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices.
“Although the disease has not been serious, the disruption and expense it has caused for local and state health officials has been significant,” said Marin, a viral diseases expert with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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