Outbreak of mumps tops 450 cases
Flagging vaccination rates blamed for surge
Amumps outbreak has worsened with more than 450 cases of the highly infectious disease registered across Auckland this year and numbers surging in the last month.
Experts are blaming flagging vaccination rates for the outbreak and urge parents to ensure children’s immunisations are up to date.
As of yesterday, there were 457 confirmed and probable mumps cases reported to the Auckland Regional Public Health Service. Last year, only 13 confirmed cases were reported throughout the city.
The number of cases ballooned this month with 157 new cases reported since early September, when the public health service announced there had been 300 cases.
The majority of the cases reported had been in West and South Auckland.
University of Otago public health Professor Michael Baker said the numbers reported were likely to be “only a fraction” of the people who had mumps.
While a high number of children were often hospitalised during a mumps outbreak, it could be a mild illness for others who would not bother going to see a doctor, he said.
Those on low incomes were also less likely to go to a doctor and be counted when it came to infectious diseases like mumps, he said.
Manurewa High School was among the schools affected by the outbreak.
The school’s business manager Julie Lockie said there had been about six or seven students who had contracted the mumps this term with one new case reported this week.
She said students who tested positive for the mumps stayed away from school until they had recovered.
The school had sent information about the disease to parents and was encouraging them to ensure children were up to date with immunisations.
Auckland Regional Public Health Service clinical director Dr Julia Peters said the outbreak was being fuelled by low immunisation rates, with about 80 per cent of those who had contracted the disease not fully vaccinated.
Children are vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella at 15 months and 4 years. In the year to June, 88 per cent of 5-year-olds were vaccinated.
Peters said the majority of mumps cases this year were people aged between 10 and 29 years.
A cluster of schools in West Auckland were also at risk of a whooping cough outbreak, according to the Auckland Regional Public Health Service.
Several students at Laingholm Primary School had been affected, causing the school’s theatre production to be called off.
Medical Officer Dr Michael Hale said the outbreak was localised in two small clusters.
“In the last month, we’ve had 33 new cases. It’s one of these infectious diseases that waxes and wanes and we don’t ever really get rid of it in New Zealand.”
Laingholm Primary
With our low immunisation rates, it’s probably not long before this happens with a more serious illness. Dr Michelle Conning
School principal Martyn Weatherill said several students, parents and siblings had been affected, with new cases continuing to be found.
Around the country there were 143 cases of whooping cough, also known as pertussis, notified between August 19 and September 15 — a significant increase on the 74 cases reported in the same period last year. For the year to September 15, there have been 938 probable, confirmed and suspected cases.
Dr Michelle Conning from the Titirangi Medical Centre said about a third of the students at Laingholm Primary were not immunised which was a huge concern to her.
“At the moment we’re definitely dealing with whooping cough but, with our low immunisation rates, it’s probably not long before this happens with a more serious illness.”
Lack of access to vaccinations was not the problem in the area, she said. Rather it seemed to be pockets of people who were anti-vaccination.
The low immunisation rate in the area was a large part of the reason outbreaks often hit the area hard, she said.