Mumps Clinic Tonight at the Chelsea Public Library

By Sue Ellen Woodcock

While there is no cause for alarm there is concern over the number of cases of mumps and tonight an immunization clinic will be held at the Chelsea Public Library, 569 Broadway, Chelsea, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. to give out immunizations.

Carol Donovan, public health nurse for the City of Revere, said cases of the mumps are up this year over years past. So far this year there have been 10-12 reported cases of mumps. In years past, there have only been zero or one to two cases.

“Usually we see it in children, but now it’s adults,” Donovan said.

Donovan and Paula McHatton, the Chelsea Public Health Nurse, have noticed that the cases have been in the immigrant population with people not being vaccinated for MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) or they do not know their immunization history.

Mumps can be spread from person to person through the air.

With mumps a person may be contagious anytime from two days before the swelling to five days after the beginning of the swelling of the glands. The most common symptoms are fever, sore throat, ear pain, swelling of the salivary glands and painful swelling of the testicles or ovaries.

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