By NewsDesk  @infectiousdiseasenews

Temple University Student Health Services (SHS) has been notified that three Temple students have tested positive for mumps since the start of the Spring 2020 semester.

Image/ADH

The three students are no longer contagious. Student Health Services is not currently aware of any students who have the mumps and are contagious.

School officials are working closely with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health to monitor this situation.

Mumps is a highly infectious viral disease passed through saliva and respiratory secretions. While the incubation period is 12 to 25 days, symptoms often appear 16 to 18 days after exposure.

The symptoms of mumps are similar to those of influenza (the flu) and often include tender, swollen glands below the ear and along the jawline on one or both sides of the face and neck; headache; fever and cold-like symptoms. People with mumps are considered infectious from two days before swelling begins through five days after the start of swelling.

It is spread through direct contact with saliva or respiratory droplets, and generally, people are most contagious about one to two days before their salivary glands become swollen and painful. It’s most contagious during that flu-like period before the salivary gland swelling.

Officials say last year’s experience taught us that the majority of the confirmed mumps cases at Temple involve members of the university community who previously had received the MMR vaccine. Mumps cases among vaccinated people are more common in close-contact settings like university campuses, but vaccination coverage—including booster doses for those who have come into contact with someone sick with mumps—reduces the size and duration of outbreaks.