Mumps outbreak in Wisconsin

Twenty afflicted with disease at UW campus

There’s not a huge outbreak of mumps in Wisconsin, so far this year, but enough to make health workers notice.

About 20 students were afflicted with the disease this fall at one University of Wisconsin campus, and that shows the need to check your immunization history, says Bridget Pfaff, director of infection control at Gundersen Healty System in La Crosse

“You only need a few cases on a college campus to see how many people out there might be without immunization,” Pfaff said.

Even those with two doses of the MMR vaccine can be infected by mumps, and that infection can occur two days before symptoms appear. About three dozen mumps cases have been identified in Wisconsin this year.