In a follow-up to a story earlier this week, the McKinley Health Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign says they have diagnosed mumps in about a dozen students since their return to studies following spring break.
School health officials say virtually all students at the University of Illinois have received two shots for mumps. In general, 85 percent of people who have received two vaccinations for mumps can expect to be adequately protected, leaving 15 percent who may actually come down with mumps infection even though they have had two vaccinations. For more infectious disease news and information, visit and “like” the Infectious Disease News Facebook page.
The McKinley Health Center adds, the cases currently part of our spring experience with mumps on the Urbana campus have no clear pattern within the University community. Cases have occurred in both international and domestic students, and it has also appeared within several elements of the Greek community. Both graduate and undergraduate students have been infected, and one University employee, not an employee of McKinley Health Center, was reported to have come down with mumps during the last few weeks.
Health officials say the cluster of infections at U of I appears to be part of a widespread emergence of the mumps virus throughout the Midwest. The Ohio State University has reported 179 cases as of Wednesday, while the University of Wisconsin at Madison and UW-La Crosse have also reported smaller numbers of cases.
