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Possible Mumps case at Draper Elementary School

Posted at 5:45 PM, Apr 12, 2019
and last updated 2019-04-12 22:33:23-04

DRAPER, Utah – Parents at Draper Elementary School are on high alert after the Salt Lake County Health Department informed them they're looking into a possible case of the mumps.

Canyons School District Spokesman Jeff Haney said they notified parents immediately after hearing from the County Health Department.

"We take our cues in communicating issues of public health from the county health department," Haney said.

As a precaution, the school had its custodial crews clean the entire school with hospital-grade detergent.

"When the students arrived at school today they had sterile desks, sterile hallways, sterile bathrooms, and sterile buses. We’re doing that as a precaution and we’re doing it to give parents peace of mind," Haney said.

According to Madison Clawson, Nursing Supervisor of Infectious Diseases at the Salt Lake County Health Department, the symptoms of the mumps start off being similar to the flu with a fever and body aches.

"It comes in as a swelling of the parotid glands or salivary glands underneath the jaw. You will develop swelling on one side or both," said Clawson.

While the Salt Lake County Health Department wants parents to be aware of the symptoms, they also want to clarify, this is not a confirmed case and informing schools about potential cases is routine.

"We're proactive with these types of things so we’ll send these alerts out just to make people aware but in this situation, it’s not an outbreak," Clawson said.

However, it is a good opportunity to remind parents this is a vaccine-preventable disease.

"There are laws requiring students to be vaccinated when they come to school however there is the ability of parents to opt out and get a waiver on those immunizations. They have to get that waiver though from the county health department," Haney said.

According to the state's most recent immunization records, 3.2% of students in the Canyons School District, in grades K-12, have been exempt from vaccinations.

For people who have had the vaccine, you can get an MMR booster if there's been an exposure of outbreak of mumps, but that wouldn't be necessary in this case because it's not even a confirmed case at this point.