WASHINGTON — Medical officials at American University are urging people to take precautions after a suspected case of mumps was reported there.
In a letter to the university community, Dr. David Reitman, medical director of the Student Health Center, said on Friday that the D.C. Department of Health notified them of the suspected case and has contacted the affected students.
“Mumps is a viral infection that causes fever, swelling or tenderness to one or more salivary glands, usually the parotid gland that is located along the jaw in front of the ear,” Reitman wrote. He added that the virus “typically goes away on its own and patients fully recover.”
In a letter Wednesday, the D.C. Department of Health said that mumps is spread by direct contact with saliva or “discharge from the nose or throat,” or by breathing the air that an infected person coughs or sneezes in without covering their nose and mouth. They added that about one in three people with the virus don’t develop swelling and may not even realize they have it.
The department said in the letter that a person is contagious from seven days before the onset of any swelling to five days afterward. Symptoms would appear up to 25 days after exposure; in American University’s case, the letter said, the period will be over Nov. 17.
Reitman reiterated that proper hand-washing is one critical way to prevent the spread of mumps, or any infection. The Department of Health said frequent hand-washing for at least 20 seconds, scrubbing with soap and water, is the proper technique.
“With few exceptions, all students under the age of 26 at American University have received vaccinations against [mumps], so the chance of spreading to fellow students should be minimal,” Reitman wrote.
Just this week, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention committee recommended that people considered at risk get a third dose of vaccine when a mumps outbreak happens.
The CDC has not yet adopted the recommendation, but it is expected to. Read more about mumps on their site.
WTOP’s Michelle Basch contributed to this report.
