Four SUNY Geneseo students have confirmed cases of the mumps. These four students did have the proper two dose vaccination, which is supposed to immunize a person from the virus.
Dr. Steven Radi, medical director of health services at SUNY Geneseo, says 15 students who have not received the vaccine have been told to stay away from campus for about a month. But because the four students who got the mumps had been vaccinated, it’s hard to know who exactly is at risk.
“All four have received two doses of the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine. This is very common in the mumps outbreaks we’ve been seeing around the country. So that brings up the question of does the immunity wane over time? Is this a different strain of mumps vaccine, a variety?” says Radi.
For now, the Thanksgiving break is coming at a good time, he says, to break up the student body and opportunities for catching the disease, which spreads just like colds do through saliva or mucus.
“I suspect we may have more cases. We’re just going to do everything we can to promote all of our public health measures and keep the community notified of what’s going on,” adds Radi.
Although the mumps are not very common in the United States, there have been outbreaks over the past several years, many of them on college campuses.
