As if it weren't enough that Manhattan's been plagued by a recent measles resurgence, eight students at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ have reportedly contracted mumps. Up next: smallpox, rinderpest, bubonic plague, dodo bird stampede.
According to the New Jersey Department of Health, the eight students were diagnosed with the highly-contagious disease last week. Officials say the virus is not spreading, and the students, aged 18-21, have been isolated in their off-campus homes.
There's no cure or specific treatment for mumps—which is characterized by fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness, loss of appetite, and the swelling of salivary glands, according to the CDC—though usually the illness passes on its own. The MMR (mumps, measles and rubella) vaccination helps prevent individuals from contracting the disease, and two doses of mumps vaccine are 88 percent effective in protecting you. But since vaccines rely on herd immunity to keep you from getting sick, it's still possible to contract the illness. All of the Stevens Institute students who have fallen ill had received the recommended two vaccine doses.
Mumps spreads easily through coughing and sneezing, and it can cause serious complications in adults, according to the NJ Health Department [pdf]. Plus, swollen glands like these don't seem so pleasant.
This isn't the first recent mumps outbreak in our area: in February, there were 13 reported mumps cases at Fordham University's Manhattan and Bronx campuses. And in September, dozens of reported mumps cases briefly shut down a popular Jersey Shore nightclub.
