Mumps outbreak reaches Seattle

The mumps outbreak has officially entered Seattle’s city limits.

According to The Seattle Times, officials confirmed one adult in the city has come down with the illness.

As of right now, 19 cases are confirmed in King County, while another 64 are probable. That brings the county total to 83.

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Almost all of the infected are children, and most are up to date on their vaccines. However, the vaccine only works 88 percent of the time.

The outbreak forced the Auburn School District to issue a warning earlier this month that if children didn’t become vaccinated, they wouldn’t be allowed back to class for about a month. As of Dec. 7, there were about 30 students in Auburn with mumps.

Symptoms of mumps include facial swelling and fever. Mumps spreads through saliva with typical symptoms including low-grade fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness, and loss of appetite. Some people experience swelling of the cheeks, neck or jaw.

Officials say mumps is usually not common in the United States because vaccination rates are generally good. In the past few years, however, mumps outbreaks have occurred in Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, Arkansas, Iowa, and Texas.

Dr. Jeff Duchin of the health department says some people don’t respond to the vaccine so outbreaks can still occur, but if unvaccinated, many more people would become ill.

“It does leave some number of people who may still be vulnerable and can acquire the infection and spread it,” said Dr. Jeff Duchin, with the Seattle-King County Health Department.

But Duchin said the vaccine is still worth getting: “Before we had the vaccine, mumps was a major cause of viral meningitis, cause inflammation of the brain, of the testes, of the ovaries in women.”

Once a person is vaccinated, there is no need for booster shots.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.