Alton School District confirms elementary student diagnosed with mumps

ALTON - An elementary student from the Alton School District has been diagnosed with an uncommon disease, often vanquished by vaccines - the mumps. 

"We did have a student with mumps at one of our elementary schools," Alton Superintendent Mark Cappel said in an emailed statement. "We worked closely with the Madison County Health Department to ensure we followed proper protocol for students, staff and volunteers. We also sent a dialer and letter to parents at the school with additional information. Students typically receive their MMR vaccine prior to attending school, but a small percentage of people can still contract the mumps even after being vaccinated." 

According to the Center for Disease Control, the mumps is a contagious disease caused by a virus. 

"It typically starts with a few days of fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness and loss of appetite, followed by swollen salivary glands," the website stated. 

The website also advises children receive the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, saying the disease is no longer very common in the United States, partially due to that vaccine. 

"Outbreaks have most commonly occurred in places where people have prolonged, close contact with a person who has mumps, such as attending the same class, playing on the same sports teams or living in the same dormitory," the Center for Disease Control stated on its website. 

Not all cases of the mumps can be prevented with vaccines, the Center of Disease Control admits. In a question posed to the governmental organization on its websites regarding someone who was vaccinated and still contracted the virus, the Center for Disease Control issued the following response: 

MMR vaccine prevents most, but not all, cases of mumps and complications caused by the disease. People who have received two doses of the MMR vaccine are about nine times less likely to get mumps than unvaccinated people who have the same exposure to mumps virus. However, some people who receive two doses of MMR can still get mumps, especially if they have prolonged, close contact with someone who has the disease. If a vaccinated person does get mumps, they will likely have less severe illness than an unvaccinated person.

Before there was a vaccine, mumps was a common childhood disease in the United States. In some cases, the disease caused complications, such as permanent deafness in children and, occasionally, swelling of the brain (encephalitis), which in rare cases resulted in death. From year to year, the number of mumps cases can range from roughly a couple hundred to a couple thousand. In some years, there are more cases of mumps than usual because of outbreaks.

While mumps is considered a serious disease, the Center for Disease Control said most people who contract it recover completely within a few weeks. Cappel did not indicate the school was facing an outbreak, noting only one student at this time who has contracted the illness. 

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