The number of confirmed, active mumps cases at Temple University decreased to less than 10 as of Tuesday, Employee and Student Health Services reported.
Over the course of the past month, there’s been a steady decline of cases discovered on campus per week, from 46 in mid- to late March, which was the height of the outbreak, to seven discovered last week, wrote Mark Denys, director of Employee and Student Health Services in an email to the Temple community.
As of Tuesday, there were 154 total confirmed and probable cases of the mumps related to Temple, Denys wrote in an email to The Temple News.
Students and faculty who exhibited mumps symptoms prior to April 11 are not considered contagious anymore, Denys wrote.
Since the outbreak began on Feb. 28, Employee and Student Health Services has administered more than 6,000 measles, mumps, rubella vaccines, Denys wrote, including the nearly 5,000 vaccines it gave out during two free vaccination clinics on March 27 and 29.
The significant reduction in weekly cases is “encouraging,” Denys wrote, and shows that the university’s efforts to minimize the outbreak have been effective.
Students, faculty and staff who have symptoms of the mumps should still contact Employee and Student Health Services, and MMR vaccines will continue to be available for free at its office, Denys wrote.
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