An outbreak of mumps, first reported at The Ohio State University, has spread beyond campus and into the community, health officials said, Reuters reported.
As of Monday, 63 cases of mumps were reported in Franklin County, Ohio, according to Columbus Public Health, Reuters reported. Forty-five of those are linked to the university outbreak, said Jose Rodriguez, spokesman for the health department.
"The university cases have occurred in men and women between the ages of 18 and 48, while the community cases have occurred in residents of Columbus and Franklin County between the ages of 4 and 50," the department said in a statement, according to Reuters.
The department is working with other universities to make sure they are ready to vaccinate members of the university community and promote infection control measures. The most important of those are: wash your hands, cover your cough and stay home if you're sick, he said, Reuters reported.
Mumps is "a highly infectious disease" that spreads the same way as a cold or flu does, through respiratory droplets when someone coughs or sneezes, according to Reuters.
OSU students went on spring break "right as this was exploding," Rodriguez said, and local health officials contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to warn other departments to be on the lookout, Reuters reported. The numbers doubled when the kids came back.
Cases of mumps were also reported at Fordham University in New York last month, according to Reuters,.
Mumps typically begins with a fever, headache, muscle aches, fatigue and loss of appetite, which is followed by the swelling of salivary glands, according to the CDC, Reuters reported.
There is no specific treatment for mumps, and patients usually recover after a week or two, but occasionally the disease can cause serious complications such as encephalitis, meningitis, deafness or inflammation of the breasts or ovaries in girls who have reached puberty, the CDC said, according to Reuters.
