It appears many kids with proper vaccinations are contracting the Mumps!
There have a been a few college campus mumps outbreaks this past year. I am wondering if an ineffective batch of vaccines were given out the year these kids got their first or second vaccine?
Scary stuff that these things are cropping up after decades of being suppressed by immunizations.
As an immune suppressed student, this is one of my worst nightmares. I only go to campus when it’s absolutely necessary. I’ve even been excused from teaching this year while I go through these treatments.
This is doubly scary because it will play into the tin foil hat crowd who don’t understand even basic bio.
Like most schools, UM does have an immunization requirement, that includes 2 doses of MMR vaccine (or a blood test that proves immunity to measles, mumps and rubella). Either the vaccine is less effective than normal, or it’s somehow related to “Greek” activities.
@romanigypsyeyes I like your avatar. 
I was going to make a crack about how “vaccines cause autism dontchaknow!” and then worried maybe no one would get the sarcasm, but clearly you would. (As my autie likes to say, “Actually, since many of us excel in the sciences, it’s more likely that autism caused vaccines.”)
I wonder if campuses are still allowing for “religious exemptions” on vaccine requirements, and if so, if that simply means anyone can claim they have a problem with it. We’re coming up on a whole crop of college students whose parents bought into the whole ZOMG VACCINES AUTISM AAAAAIIIIEEEEEE nonsense. Scary.
If my understanding is correct, for MMR to work for an population at an effective level, it needs about 95% immunization rate. The problem today is that we have far more than 5% of students who do not have proper immunization at many campuses.
The same MMR has been used for students in many other countries, they work just fine there because their immunization rates are much higher than ours.
^And that used to be true here, too. 
There was a small outbreak of mumps at a [url=<a href=“http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Mumps-Viral-Disease-Infection-SUNY-New-Paltz-New-York-College-High-School-Treatment-Symptoms-403767496.html%5DSUNY%5B/url”>http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Mumps-Viral-Disease-Infection-SUNY-New-Paltz-New-York-College-High-School-Treatment-Symptoms-403767496.html]SUNY[/url] that began in early October. About a dozen students (mostly swim team members) got it (the number is now up to 32). Eventually, a couple of cases popped up in the local high school (their swim team practices at the college). The college’s press release said unimmunized students were sent home until the incubation period passed. I don’t know what happens with their schoolwork, but I bet this is a consequence the parents who chose not to immunize for philisophical reasons didn’t expect.
I suspect the close living quarters is partially responsible for the outbreaks. Shared drinks or untensils and wet towels also contribute to the spread of the illness. I doubt there was a weak batch of vaccines. If the number of cases becomes abnormally high the CDC can track batch numbers, but I think the cause is more likely low immunization rates.
I know a few public school families who claimed religious exemption as an excuse not to have their kids immunized. The parents were afraid their kids would develop autism and thought herd immunity would protect them. We homeschool so it’s been easier for us to avoid people like that. Now that my son is in college there’s not much I can do but remind him to take necessary precautions.
I can’t help but feel bad for Mizzou. They can’t catch a break.
University of Missouri does:
http://studenthealth.missouri.edu/forms&policies/MMRcompliance.pdf
@yankeeinGA thanks
Neither my undergrad nor grad school have any vaccine requirements. I firmly believe that all public universities should require students to be up to date on vaccines. No exceptions for anything other than legitimate medical ones.
My child is fully vaccinated (other than the last dose of HPV), but this year (her freshman year in college) she came down with something my mother in law swore up and down looked just like measles. The health center couldn’t figure out what it was so did nothing. By the time I got her to her pediatrician, the rash was mostly gone and the pediatrician basically said it couldn’t have been the measles because she was fully vaccinated and it must have been some other viral rash. I don’t know what it was, but my mother in law is the only person looking at the rash who has actually seen a case of measles. I wonder…
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/public/index.html indicates that two doses of MMR is 97% effective at preventing measles. So it is possible that your kid is in the unlucky 3% if it actually was measles.
If it actually was measles, it could have the effect of lessening immunity against other diseases previously acquired or vaccinated against, according to https://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S43/10/03O18/index.xml?section=topstories . Perhaps revaccination for other diseases may be needed?
The mumps component of the vaccine is less effective. From the CDC:
“The mumps component of the MMR vaccine is about 88% (range: 66-95%) effective when a person gets two doses; one dose is about 78% (range: 49%−92%) effective.”
Mumps are making the rounds here, but in elementary schools. And, like at Mizzou, all of the cases have been kids who are fully vaccinated (oddly, only one case out of several hundred was a non-vaccinated child). I don’t know if the vaccine is ineffective or if the lack of herd vaccinations has caused the virus to mutate, but I’ll admit I’m concerned.