Students hit by mumps outbreak

An outbreak of potentially fatal mumps has hit a medical college in London, it was revealed today.

Low uptake rates of the controversial MMR vaccine has sparked alerts from doctors of the emergence of measles, mumps and rubella cases again.

At King's College, London, 14 students are suspect cases and four have been confirmed as mumps. In the community around the Dulwich campus, there have been 85 cases of mumps among teenagers.

University students in cities around the country have been advised to have the jab as the worst outbreak strikes for a decade.

Nationally almost 4,000 cases of mumps were confirmed in the first nine months of the year - more than double last year's figure.

The students are particularly vulnerable because they are from a very specific age group which was not immunised against mumps but built up no resistance because mumps was not prevalent in the community. Those now in their late teens and early twenties are too old to have had the MMR vaccine, introduced for toddlers in 1988.

All medical, dental and nursing students who come into contact with patients at King's College hospital and Guy's and Thomas' hospitals have now been urged to have the MMR vaccine.

It is feared many more may be incubating the virus - which can lie undetected for three weeks - but have already gone home for the Christmas holidays meaning they could spread it further afield. The University, which has sites spread across the capital, is now holding emergency clinics to give students the MMR vaccination.

One student told the Standard: "When you think of mumps, you think of it as a kid's illness - not something you get when you're older; not what I wanted to take home this Christmas."

The cases have emerged in Dulwich, which has among the lowest rates of vaccination against mumps in the country.

The uptake fell to a dangerous 75 per cent - well below the 95 percent needed to protect against an outbreak. Vaccination levels dropped across the country after research linked the Measles, Mumps and Rubella jab to autism and bowel disorders.

That data has now widely been discredited and uptake rates are slowly beginning to rise.

Staff at King's College have written to every student warning them of the outbreak.

Academic Registrar Brain Salter told them in a circular: "We recommend that if you have not already had two doses of MMR vaccine, then you should receive at least one dose of vaccine now."