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Twelve confirmed cases of mumps in Alachua County were requested from the University of Florida and the Alachua County Health Department, asking those concerned to take appropriate precautions .
A spokesman for the health department said all reported cases were students, many of whom were UF students, who might have shared objects such as bottles of water or water. utensils. All those who contracted mumps in Alachua County were vaccinated, according to the spokesman, who said the mumps was much less serious among vaccinated people.
Caillin Heron urges people to get vaccinated after waking up with an unrecognizable, swollen face like a "fish punch". The second lieutenant of the army who just graduated from UF this month stated that at first she thought she had a cold, but she it's quickly aggravated.
"I woke up and I knew I had a fever.You know how you can say it?" Then I was in a panic. "I took a bouquet of ibuprofen." , my roommate was: "Your face, something is happening. "I can not even open my mouth," Heron told News4Jax via FaceTime on Friday.
Heron said that she had diagnosed mumps, which she thought she had contracted while she was on campus at UF.
According to the Department of Health, Alachua County sees localized outbreaks like this every two to five years. Although the 12 confirmed cases this year are greater than the annual number of zero to two baseline cases, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health said that the disease had not spread in the same way as it did in the past. a virus, such as the flu, and that most cases involve people who have been in close contact with each other.
According to the Ministry of Health, 41 states have recently reported an increase in the number of mumps cases, citing more people without vaccination than one reason.
Dr. Mobeen Rathore, head of infectious diseases at UF Health, said the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella, is the only real way to prevent the virus.
"There is a lot of false information about what vaccines do in terms of side effects, which are mostly untrue," said Rathore. "I think it's important that your child be vaccinated at the right time, which is why we immunize children against measles, mumps and rubella."
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that children receive the first dose of the vaccine between 12 and 15 months of age and the second dose between 4 and 6 years of age. According to the CDC, the vaccine is 88% effective.
Heron encourages people to get vaccinated because she does not want that to happen, claiming that not only mumps was painful, but that it could lead to other health problems in the future .
"For more than a week, it was extremely painful, my face was really hurting me – my neck, my cheeks and my hair," she said. "At one point, I could not even touch my ear, my ear hurt so badly."
UF said it alerted students to confirmed cases by sending messages via its campus alert system, which sends emails and SMS messages.
The university asks students to take the necessary precautions, as they would with the flu. Adopting good hygiene habits (washing hands, disinfecting hands, not sharing food or drinks) may help, but according to doctors, nothing will prevent mumps and the vaccine.
VIEW: Mumps information sent to UF students
Although some UF students have returned home during the summer and have not been in Gainesville for a few weeks, it takes an average of 16 to 18 days for the mumps symptoms to appear. These symptoms include fever and swelling of the face and glands.
So far this year, no cases of mumps in the counties of Duval, Nassau and St. Johns have been reported. As of April 26, Florida had fewer than 19 reported cases of more than 700 nationally.
Copyright 2019 by WJXT News4Jax – All rights reserved.
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