RICHFIELD, Utah - The Central Utah Public Health Department has confirmed two cases of mumps in Sanpete County.
The Superintendent of North Sanpete County School District, Dr. Sam Ray, says he was notified on April 12th of one student in the school district who had been diagnosed with mumps.
“We’ve notified the parents we’ve notified the kids at the school, if they did show up to school, we’ve got their parents to take them home because we don’t want them to get exposed,” said Dr. Ray.
Dr. Ray says at one school in the district, about 10% of students are not vaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella. With an outbreak like this, by state law, unvaccinated students are not allowed to come to school until they provide a shot record or wait for a 26-day period after a confirmed cased.
Students who are not at school during this time are able to complete their school work from home, says Dr. Ray.
“Everyone’s now carrying a bunch of hand sanitizer like all my friends are because they don’t know like what the kids touched and like what you should and shouldn’t touch,” said Emile Bailey, a student at North Sanpete County High School.
Dr. Ray says employees at the schools have been provided cleaning materials to sanitized classrooms and busses.
The Central Utah Public Health Department says signs and symptoms of mumps include fever, muscle aches, swelling of the salivary glands and a tender jaw.
The health department says the best way to prevent mumps is with a vaccination.
“With the first vaccination it’s about 80%, you get 80% protection, with that second dose it kind of tries to pick up that percentage but that’s the easiest most effective way to prevent the disease,” said Alicia Beckstead, the Director of Nursing for Central Utah Public Health Department.
The Central Utah Public Health Department held a vaccination clinic on Tuesday, and they say it was pretty successful, vaccinating a number of people.
The health department will host a second vaccination clinic on April 17th from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00p.m.
Anyone can get vaccinated.
There is also a second confirmed case of mumps in Sanpete County and the health department says a possible third case, but they’re waiting for test results to come back for that third person.
“My big concern is that we not have an outbreak of a more serious disease and that we do everything we can to protect the families,” said Dr. Ray.
Click here for more information on mumps and where to get vaccinated.
