Mumps confirmed in Schull school

A CONFIRMED case of mumps, a potentially serious disease which can cause male sterility, has been reported in Schull Community College.
The case is one of 25 reported in the county so far this year, compared to 94 for all of last year and 36 for all of 2018.
The HSE say that both regionally and nationally there’s been a large increase in the notifiable disease that can be fully vaccinated against.
There were 2,000 cases during 2019 reported in Ireland, compared to 575 notifications in 2018.
A HSE spokesperson said: ‘This has been reflected in Cork and Kerry as well and during the latter part of 2019, we began to see an increase in notifications to the department. So far in January 2020, we have already had 31 notifications – 25 in Cork and six in Kerry. This compared to the whole of 2018, when we had 36 cases which increased to 121 – 27 Kerry and 94 in Cork (provisional data) in 2019. The majority of cases are in the 15-24 years group and many are in third level colleges. In 2020, 21 of the 31 cases notified were in 15-24 year olds.’
Dr Augustine Pereira, director of public health, said that in this area, the uptake of the MMR vaccine is 93% – so below the target of 95%. ‘As the majority of cases we are seeing is amongst the 15 to 24 age bracket, we are requesting you to contact your GP if you haven’t had the vaccine,’ she said.
Symptoms include fever, headache, malaise and swollen, tender salivary glands, and mumps often gives the appearance of swollen cheeks or jaws.

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