MUMPS case confirmed in a 10 year old child in San Anselmo
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 07:45AM A public health official of the county of Marin reported on Tuesday that there is a confirmed case of mumps in a 10 year old child in San Anselmo. Details in his notice follow:
The child, who is unimmunized, attends 5th grade at Brookside School, upper campus, in San Anselmo. The child attended school with symptoms on 1/9/12, and was seen by his pediatrician the following day. At that time the child had unilateral parotitis and a mild cold. The pediatrician took a buccal swab and directed the family not to allow the child to return to school for the rest of the week.
The child’s family had traveled to Japan last month, returning on December 28. Japan does not routinely immunize children against mumps and has frequent outbreaks. As a result, the prevalence of permanent deafness among children there now stands at 1 in 1000.
School administrators are sending out a notice of exposure to parents, asking that children who are not up to date with their MMR vaccine see their providers immediately. Fortunately, Brookside School has a relatively low rate of vaccine refusers. Of 137 students in the fifth grade, only four (including the index case) attend with a personal belief exemption for MMR – and one of the other three has already received one dose of the vaccine.
Vaccinating your children is the best way to prevent infectious disease. This point cannot be stressed enough.