NS mumps outbreak spreads into Ontario

Nova Scotia's mumps outbreak is showing no signs of slowing down, infecting more than 200 people in the province and putting public-health officials across the country on alert.

In Ontario, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care said yesterday the province has confirmed three cases and is awaiting test results on five others. The outbreak, which began in late February, has also infected 34 people in New Brunswick and one in Prince Edward Island.
"The rest of the country has been alerted and everybody's keeping a really close eye to see if they might get some cases," Jeannette Macey, head of disease surveillance in the immunization and respiratory infections division at the agency, said yesterday.
"Mumps is pretty prevalent all over the world, so you can expect you will get outbreaks from time to time," Ms. Macey added. "It's been quite a few years since we've seen any in Canada, so I guess to some extent we were due for one."
Mumps causes fever and swollen saliva glands, but it can also lead to such serious illnesses as meningitis and, in rare cases, sterility in men. It is spread by activities such as coughing, sneezing, sharing drinks and kissing, and it can take up to seven days for symptoms to appear.
Vaccination is the best prevention for mumps, but doctors say young adults in their late teens and early 20s are more prone to the disease because they were born in a period when only one dose of vaccine was administered to children. Since 1996, preschoolers have received two doses.
Shelly Sarwal, a Nova Scotia medical officer of health, said the province is considering giving a second vaccine to people in this age group. In the meantime, she says there could be more cases across the country as university students who may be carrying the disease return home for the summer.
"We do expect to see more cases. And we also expect that this outbreak with go on for some time. ... We're going to be looking at something over months, not something that's going to end in a couple of days," Dr. Sarwal said.
This is the third outbreak of mumps in Nova Scotia in the past 1½years. The other two were smaller, infecting about 20 people each time. Larger outbreaks have also been seen in other countries recently, including the United States and Britain.
Those infected are asked to sequester themselves at home for nine days. Last month, a number of students at Dalhousie University in Halifax voluntarily stayed in isolation in residence rooms to prevent the disease from spreading.
Dr. Sarwal said she doesn't know the origin of Nova Scotia's outbreak. About 30 per cent of people who have the mumps show no symptoms, she said.
Young adults tend to be more social and, therefore, prone to catching the disease.
"There's not much you can actually do," Dr. Sarwal said. "We just ask people to stay home and limit their contact with other people in order to prevent the spread."