Southern Health is seeing a spike in cases of the mumps similar to other regions of the province. Dr. Michael Routledge, Medical Officer of Health, says it's normal to have five or ten cases per year, but there have been 45 cases in just the past four months. And he adds there are two parts of the region where cases of mumps are more prominent.

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Dr. Michael Routledge"We've seen a fairly significant number of cases in the Steinbach area. We've also seen a number of cases in the Morden-Winkler area and then west of that. So there are a couple of spots where we've seen an increase in cases."

Dr. Routledge says unlike the whooping cough outbreak, the increase in mumps cases is not as much of a vaccination issue.

"We're continuing to see an increase in whooping cough cases that is very specific to people who choose not to immunize. However, that's not what we're seeing with mumps so far. What we're seeing with mumps is that a good percentage, probably half, maybe even a bit more, are people who have been immunized which is what we see across the province and elsewhere. But we really haven't had any severe cases which speaks to the fact that probably, even in people who are immunized but do get the mumps, they're not getting the severe kind of complications we might expect which would suggest that the vaccine is having some positive protective effect."

He adds the vaccine is 80% effective in people who have had a single dose and 90% effective in those who have had a double dose. Dr. Routledge says the outbreak started among teenagers and young adults but there have been some cases among young children and older adults as well. He outlines some things we can to do avoid getting the mumps.

"For people who haven't been vaccinated, this is a good time to look at talking to your health care provider and getting vaccinated. Other than that, one thing we often see is that this sometimes clusters around sports teams for example. So, those groups, make sure that you're not sharing water bottles. I think a lot of teams are good with that now. Other than that, it's basic hygiene like washing your hands. Part of the challenge though is that mumps is a very infections virus so, in some respects, it's hard to prevent."