The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District and UI McKinley Health Center vaccinated more than 3,000 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign students, faculty and staff Thursday and Friday in an effort to control a mumps outbreak that has struck dozens of students at the school. To date, 82 people have been afflicted with the mumps.

Image/CDC
Image/CDC

On Tuesday, school and health officials called on students to receive a MMR booster to increase immunity against the contagious viral disease.

The News-Gazette reported Friday that  2,451 Illinois students received the vaccine, while a total of 3,285 vaccines were administered.

As of July 24, there has been 236 mumps cases reported nationally. In 2014, more than 1,000 cases were reported in the worst year since 2010.

In 2014, mumps outbreaks hit several college campuses including the University of Idaho, Ohio State University and The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, among others.

Mumps is spread by droplets of saliva or mucus from the mouth, nose, or throat of an infected person, usually when the person coughs, sneezes or talks. Items used by an infected person, such as cups or softdrink cans, can also be contaminated with the virus, which may spread to others if those items are shared.

Symptoms typically appear 16-18 days after infection, but this period can range from 12-25 days after infection. It is usually a mild disease, but can occasionally cause serious complications.

illiniThe most common complication is inflammation of the testicles (orchitis) in males who have reached puberty; rarely does this lead to fertility problems.

Other rare complications include inflammation of the brain and/or tissue covering the brain and spinal cord(encephalitis/meningitis), inflammation of the ovaries (oophoritis) and/or breasts (mastitis) in females who have reached puberty and deafness. Anyone who is not immune from either previous mumps infection or from vaccination can get mumps.

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