Dear Parents,

I am writing to let you know that we currently have one case of mumps (kabakulak) in the school, diagnosed last Saturday, March 8th.

All of our pupils will have already had one dose of the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella-kizamik, kabakulak, kizamikcik) vaccine by the time they are admitted to BESG and many juniors will have had a booster dose also, so this offers a very high but not 100 % rate of protection. The recommended schedule of immunization in the school is to have 2 doses of MMR vaccine, by the age of 6 years.

Mumps is a viral disease, caused by the mumps virus. Mumps is usually but not always a mild illness. The most common symptoms fever, headache, lack of appetite, malaise, fatigue and swollen and tender salivary glands below the ears, on one or both sides. The symptoms appear 2 to 3 weeks after the exposure to the virus.

The most common complication of mumps is inflammation of the testicles, if mumps is contracted by males, after reaching puberty. In addition to this one, there are some other complications and you can learn more about them at the Web links below.

It is recommended and very important that your child is kept at home if mumps is suspected. From the time he is diagnosed with the disease until he/she is not contagious, which is about five days after the onset of symptoms, which is usually-- the swollen glands (Parotitis).

To get more information about the disease, please go to these Web links:

http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/23069076/
http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=255
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/mumps/dis-faqs.htm
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mumps/DS00125

- BESG vaccination requirements

Feel free to contact me.

Juan Ramirez
School Nurse