Since mid-February, four cases of mumps have been reported at Vanderbilt University — even though the school says every student on campus is vaccinated.
The mumps have been nearly eliminated from the U.S. for decades, but there are still outbreaks. According to the CDC, over 900 cases have been reported this year alone, including one at Belmont and the four at Vanderbilt.
Louise Hanson, the university’s director of student health,
says the vaccine does not prevent mumps completely.
“Once it’s in a campus community, that very first case, it’s really easy for things to spread,” she says. “The vaccine is very, very effective but only 90 percent effective.”
Vanderbilt is still unsure where the first student caught the mumps. Health policy professor William Schaffner
believes it could have come from someone who went abroad — particularly in Europe, where the “mumps vaccine is not universal,” he says.
When students are suspected of having mumps, Vanderbilt immediately places them in isolation until the Tennessee Department of Health can confirm that they are actually infected. The Metro Nashville Health Department then launches an investigation to determine who the infected has been in contact with, so Vanderbilt can encourage them to take a booster shot.
Hanson says the school will not know if more people have gotten the illness until the end of March, but she says people on campus should practice good hygiene to prevent infection.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM