Mumps cases on rise in Vancouver prompting people to check vaccination records.
Vancouver Coastal Health is advising anyone born between 1970 and 1995 to get second dose of MMR.
The health authority has recorded 13 cases in the last month alone, and a total of 80 since February. That compares to 86 in all of 2016 and an average annual rate of 32 cases between 2011 and 2015.
Réka Gustafson, a VCH medical health officer says, "It tends to be young adults who've received only one dose of mumps vaccine as part of their routine childhood vaccinations and who tend to be going out into congregate settings, whether that's working at Whistler or going into residence at university."
Gustafson explained that people who were born between 1970 and 1995 have generally received just one dose of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine.The mumps virus spreads through saliva or mucus, and a person can become infected even if they're standing two metres from a sick person, according to VCH. The infection causes fever and swelling of the salivary glands.
