Mumps

As for me, I never study. In our abbey, we never study, for fear of the mumps - François Rabelais

Mumps
Mumps

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No, Harvard's Mumps Outbreak Doesn't Mean Vaccines Are Bunk

Oh college—those halcyon days of young love, bong hits, and communicable diseases. You know, because packing students into dorms and dining halls and frat parties is a great way to facilitate social interaction and spread viruses. At Harvard, a recent mumps out break has gotten more 40 students sick just a few weeks before commencement.

News of an outbreak of mumps, which infects salivary glands, has drawn antivaxxers like moths to a swollen red flame. They’ve seized on the fact that students sickened in Harvard’s outbreak were all vaccinated—supposed evidence that vaccines are full of lies.

It’s true the mumps vaccine isn’t the most effective, but that’s established fact,…

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 No, Harvard's Mumps Outbreak Doesn't Mean Vaccines Are Bunk

News of an outbreak of mumps, which infects salivary glands, has drawn antivaxxers like moths to a swollen red flame. They’ve seized on the fact that students sickened in Harvard’s outbreak were all vaccinated—supposed evidence that vaccines are full of lies. It’s true the mumps vaccine isn’t the most effective, but that’s established fact, not a scandal.

Mumps: Questions and Answers

Information about the disease and vaccines.

CDC

Mumps is no longer very common in the United States, but outbreaks continue to occur. Outbreaks have most commonly occurred in places where people have had prolonged, close contact with a person who has mumps, such as attending the same class, playing on the same sports team, or living in the same dormitory with someone who has mumps.

KidsHealth

The disease has been recognized for several centuries, and medical historians argue over whether the name "mumps" comes from an old word for "lump" or an old word for "mumble." Mumps was common until the mumps vaccine was licensed in 1967.

MedicineNet

Medical historians believe that documentation of a clinical illness consistent with mumps dates back to Greco-Roman times. The first effective vaccine against mumps was introduced in 1948 and used from 1950-1978. Unfortunately, this vaccine strain had limited long-term immune memory effectiveness. The current strain used in the United States and worldwide provides over 80% long-term immunity.

NHS

Mumps will usually pass without causing serious damage to a person's health. Serious complications are rare. However, mumps can lead to viral meningitis if the virus moves into the outer layer of the brain. Other complications include swelling of the testicles in males or the ovaries in females (if the affected male or female has gone through puberty).

ScienceDaily

Mumps, Measles, Rubella News.

WHO

Mumps is mostly a mild childhood disease. It most often affects children between five and nine years old. But the mumps virus can infect adults as well. When it does, complications are more likely to be serious. As more children receive mumps vaccine, it is expected that cases will become more common in older children than in younger ones.

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