Mumps Cases Are On The Rise Amongst Those Vaccinated Against The Disease

Cases of the mumps are on the rise, and it’s mostly hitting people who were vaccinated against the disease.

Mumps is usually seen amongst children as a common illness. The disease, which can show side effects in a person ranging from muscle pain, fever, headache, and more, has started to make a return, NBC News reports. The news outlet reports mumps cases jumped from 231 in 2003 to 6,584 just three years later in 2006.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says one-third of the mumps cases in the U.S. from 2007 to 2019 were primarily seen in children and adolescents. And about 94 percent of those who got the disease were vaccinated.

“Before that, large outbreaks of mumps among people who were fully vaccinated were not common, including among vaccinated children,” said the leader of the study, Mariel Marlow, an epidemiologist at the CDC, NBC News reports. “But the disease symptoms are usually milder and complications are less frequent in vaccinated people.”

Experts have yet to confirm why people get mumps, but the disease is reportedly spread through direct contact with saliva or respiratory droplets from an infected person’s mouth or throat. Almost 91 percent of the U.S. population has been received at least one of the two doses for mumps, measles, and rubella. The doses are reportedly 88 percent effective.