Three-fold rise in mumps cases

THE NUMBER of reported mumps cases in France this year is more than three times higher than in 2012.

The health surveillance group Sentinelles has made an initial report of 13,310 cases in the first seven month of 2013, compared with just 3,730 in the same period last year.

While the virus is typically seen as something picked up by children, many of this year’s cases involve young adults in sports groups or university accommodation.

While the cases are, for the moment, just noted as ‘swelling of the saliva glands’ and have not been biologically tested as mumps, the figures are an indication of a disease outbreak.

Speaking in the Nouvel Observateur Professor Jean-Paul Stahl, head of the infectious diseases unit at Grenoble Hospital said: “The Sentinelles network is a good indicator of trends. Even if the 13,000 cases are not all there, there is obviously a problem with mumps. Without a doubt it’s not as large as the measles outbreak that we had two years ago, but it could become that. What remains uncertain is the size of the problem.”

Mistakes with vaccination programs are thought to be behind the outbreak. The health observation group InVS claims up to a third of 15-year-olds have not received the second dose of the MMR jab needed to ensure its effectiveness.

The effectiveness of the vaccine has also been called into questions. The InVS says that in outbreaks observed this year, 73% of young people had already been vaccinated as babies.

Similar outbreaks among young people who had previously been vaccinated have been documented in the USA, Netherlands and Israel.