300 cases of mumps this year

More cases of mumps have been reported this year in Auckland than in the past 16 years combined.

The Auckland Regional Public Health Service had been notified of 300 cases of mumps from January 1 to September 4 this year.

“Mumps is now at large in the community and the only way we can stop this spreading further is to achieve high levels of MMR vaccination in the population,” Medical Officer of Health Dr Josephine Herman said.

She said the large number of mumps cases meant a large number of people were also at risk of contracting measles and rubella.

“The implications for young adults are deeply concerning, given the risk of non-immune pregnant women catching rubella. This can result in miscarriage or still birth and babies developing severe birth defects,” Herman said.

Mumps also posed a risk of miscarriage for women who were in their first three months of pregnancy, and could cause male sterility.

She said there was a “lost generation” of people between 10 and 29 who had not been vaccinated.

That was partly due to the now discredited MMR controversy from 1998 onwards and a pool of adults who may have missed out on the second dose of the MMR vaccine when they were children when the timing of this dose was moved from 11 years to 4 years in 2001.

Parents who were unsure about their family’s MMR vaccinations were being urged to check with their practice nurse or look up their children’s blue Well Child book.