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Galway Advertiser 2004/2004_11_25/GA_2511_E1_018.pdf
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Galway Advertiser
November 25 2004
NEWS
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FASHION
BEAUTY
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H E A LT H
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LIFE
MARY
BY SINEAD MCGOVERN It is doing the rounds at the minute, as they say, so now there is more reason than ever to be aware of the symptoms and consequences of the mumps. The name conjures images of childhood sickness, days wasted on the couch watching rubbish television while everyone else was at school having the times of their lives. The sickness was unwanted, but the attention that came with it was always welcome. True special treatment came into force at times of sickness - toast with the crusts cut off, regular doses of sympathy, and any kind of food you thought you would be able to digest. Seeing a young child suffering from something like the mumps is never nice, but at least parents are on red alert - watching their child for any sign or symptom of ill-health and usually have it diagnosed and treated before it has really set in. A new trend in the spread of the viral infection, however, is a little more worrying. Some six to eight weeks ago there was an outbreak of the mumps in Scotland in a group in their late teens and early twenties. As one of the most easily spread infections, it is most common in young
O'CONNOR
Mumps - not just a childhood infection
Catherine Curley (centre) a fourth year business student at GMIT gets a vacination injection from Dr Nives Stack with the assistance of public health nurse Marilyn Kelly (right) . Photo:-Mike Shaughnessy
children because of their close proximity when at school and at play. But now it has got hold of another age group equally vulnerable and close-knit - students. Of the 22 cases
OFF ALL BERLEI LINGERIE This Weekend and All Next Week
20%
This weekend
15%
OFFd
reported to the Western Health Board in the last two weeks, 20 are in their late teens and early twenties - four are students in GMIT, two are students in NUIG, and the remainder are in the wider community. Students are as vulnerable to picking up the infection because of their closeness to other students - they live together, they study together, they go out together, and some sleep together. It only takes one infection to bring down a group of friends, or even a seemingly unrelated group of people. While the MMR vaccine can provide up to 99 per cent protection against infection - there is always a slim chance that someone who was vaccinated could fall victim to the mumps.
20%
LINGERIE
OFF PRETTY POLLY
Getting vaccinated
First things first - if you have never been vaccinated, do so straight
away. The vaccination against the mumps is included in the measlesmumps-rubella vaccination. The introduction of the MMR in 1988 led to a considerable decrease in cases of mumps since its introduction, but a scare in recent years that the vaccination was linked with autism cases made many parents hesitant to vaccinate their children. The uptake of the jab in the WHB region is now one of the lowest in the country, at 76 per cent. Recently Dr Sheelah Ryan of the WHB strongly advised parents to get their children vaccinated, and reassured them as to the safety of it. "The scientific evidence shows that it is the safest way that parents can protect their children against measles, mumps, and rubella diseases that can be serious for babies, young children, and their families. If children are not protected against these, we run the risk of a new epidemic," she said. To get the all important
vaccination, students in NUIG and GMIT can visit the clinics which have been set up in the colleges. One opened in GMIT last Thursday and in NUIG on Tuesday of this week. One jab will be administered, and students will be asked to return for a second if they have not received any kind of vaccination before. Alternatively a vaccination can also be administered by your local GP. Diarmuid O'Donovan director of public health this week urged anyone who hasn't been vaccinated to do so as soon as possible in order to prevent further increases in the number of people infected.
from person to person through direct contact, coughing, sneezing, or exchange of saliva. People infected may also spread the mumps even when they are not showing any symptoms, because it is contagious seven days before and nine days after the onset of symptoms. Anyone who suspects he may have the infection should not go to work, school, college, or child care during the infectious period. Contact with others should be as limited as possible for that period.
time to the possibility that they may be infected with the mumps.
How serious is it?
The mumps is described as being `potentially serious'. This means that in most cases it is effectively treated, but there are possible complications which are serious, and further underpin the necessity to get vaccinated. Meningitis, testicular inflammation, ovarian inflammation, arthritis, and pancreatitis are just some of the possible, albeit rare, complications involved, while deafness occurs in one in 20,000, patients and the fatality rate is reported at between one and three per 10,000 cases. So while mumps is downplayed by many, thought to be a childhood scourge, and something which is irritating but not irreversible, the truth is the dangers are real and it is an infection to be avoided at all costs.
How to avoid it
After getting vaccinated, there is little else you can do to keep from getting infected, apart of course from avoiding someone you know to be infected. It is spread so easily -
Things to watch out for
Symptoms to look out for include fever, headache, swollen and tender salivary glands (to be found just below the front of the ear), and swollen cheeks or jaws. Some of the symptoms are not unlike the flu, so young people need to pay extra attention at this