3 undergraduate students diagnosed with mumps

Timeline of the mumps at Chapman

hree undergraduate students, including one student who lives on campus, have been diagnosed with the mumps, said Associate Dean of Students DeAnn Yocum Gaffney.

This brings the total number of cases at Chapman from Jan. 23 to March 31 to nine, according to a letter from Orange County Public Health.

Two additional undergraduate students were tested for the mumps this week, but tested negative, Yocum Gaffney told The Panther March 31.

“(The university has) been working with both the local health agency as well as the state, and will be offering a booster vaccine to the community,” Yocum Gaffney said.

The mumps is a viral disease characterized by puffed-out cheeks and a swollen jaw, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms can include a fever, muscle aches, tiredness and swollen, sensitive salivary glands.

The Orange County Health Care Agency and the California Department of Public Health recommend that all Chapman students receive a third dose of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR), according to the Orange County Public Health letter.

Yocum Gaffney told The Panther that all of the students who have contracted the mumps so far this year have received two doses of the MMR, which is the requirement to enroll at Chapman.

The Student Health Center will host vaccination clinics for students, faculty and staff who want a third MMR dose, which will take place in the Student Union April 4 and 6 from 1 to 6 p.m.

Boosters will protect students from future exposure, Yocum Gaffney said, but they will not prevent a student from contracting the disease if he or she has already been exposed.

Yocum Gaffney wrote in the email that the likelihood of a student contracting mumps is low if the student has been vaccinated. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children should receive two doses of the MMR by the age of 6.

In February, Yocum Gaffney told The Panther that five law school students had been diagnosed with the mumps after attending a back-to-school event in Newport Beach. According to a letter from Orange County Public Health March 27, a sixth case was detected in another law school student.

Six of the nine cases this year are confirmed. Three have “symptoms consistent with mumps infection,” and have had known contact with someone who contracted the mumps, according to Orange County Public Health.

One of the students who was diagnosed in March, who lives on campus, was likely exposed to the illness in late February or early March, Yocum Gaffney wrote in an email to the Chapman community March 28. Symptoms of the mumps can appear two to four weeks after exposure, she wrote.

Jessica Good, an Orange County Public Health information officer, wrote in an email that although there is no known source yet for the undergraduate students who contracted the disease, Orange County Public Health thinks that it may have occurred on campus. More cases are possible, she said.

Yocum Gaffney could not confirm the identity of the students or give any information about their residences to The Panther, because the Student Health Center has not released that information.

Yocum Gaffney also could not confirm a correlation between the six law school students who contracted the mumps in February and the three undergraduate students in March.

The best way for students to protect themselves, Yocum Gaffney said, is by not sharing cups with fellow students and by disinfecting surfaces with a cleaner that contains bleach.

“Those evening and weekend activities, if people are sharing cups, that is not such a great idea,” Yocum Gaffney said. “That’s where the highest risk for exposure would come from.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,077 cases of the mumps have been reported in 37 states, including California, from Jan. 1 to Feb. 25.