Mizzou recommends third MMR vaccine for students amid mumps outbreak

Health officials at the University of Missouri are still working to control a recent mumps outbreak on the Columbia campus.

The Student Health Center announced Wednesday that it was recommending students get a third MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) vaccine rather than the required two.

“We continue to see cases and we want to try to stop this as quickly as possible,” said MU spokesperson Christian Basi.

The center said the recommendation is based on discussions with public health officials and guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control.

Since the beginning of the fall semester, 193 confirmed and probable cases of the mumps have been identified. As of Wednesday, 169 of those patients were considered recovered, leaving 24 active cases.

According to the health center, all the infected students met the two-vaccine requirement.

There’s no formal recommendations in place for a third vaccination, but the CDC does provide guidelines for health agencies to determine when a third MMR dose may be necessary. Those guidelines include when outbreaks occur with 90 percent of the population has had the two required MMR vaccines, sustained transmission is more than two weeks and there is a high attack rate of more than five cases per population of 1,000.

Basi said they’re hoping students leaving campus for winter break next week will help put an end to the mumps outbreak.