The University of Missouri is continuing to battle a mumps outbreak. The MU Student Health Center
notified students about eight confirmed cases of mumps at the beginning on November. Yesterday, students received and email from the school stating officials have identified 193 cases of the mumps. Of these 193 cases, only 24 are currently active. In Wednesday’s email, MU health officials recommended students get a third MMR vaccine. This is the same vaccine as the first two. Students are required to have two of these vaccines before living in Mizzou based communal housing, such as dorms. There are only 50 students on campus who have not met these requirements. They have gone through an extensive approval process for the university to accept their request.
Christian Basi, the assistant director of the MU News Bureau, said students can receive these vaccines on campus. “They (students) can receive the vaccine by calling and scheduling an appointment at the MU Student Health Center.” Basi said the school is encouraging students to get the vaccine as soon as they get home for break to curb the spread of the disease. Winter break may be arriving just in time. Eric Stann, community relations specialist for the Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services, said, “It would be a reasonable to expect the number of cases to decrease as students leave for winter break because the length of winter break is longer than the incubation period of the virus.”
The MU Student Health Center is encouraging individuals with symptoms of the mumps to call a medical provider and stay at home in isolation for five days.