Irish mumps outbreak ‘only a matter of time’

IRELAND remains vulnerable to a major mumps outbreak because of the disappointingly low uptake of the vaccine, a doctor warned yesterday.

In Britain, health experts are calling for young adults to receive the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine after doctors reported a surge in mumps cases.

Dr Niall Ó Cléirigh of the Irish College of General Practitioners said it was only a question of time before Ireland experienced a similar outbreak.

"The potential for an outbreak in Ireland does exist," he warned.

It is believed that a new generation of young people, who did not receive the vaccination as children as a result of the controversy surrounding the MMR jab or who avoided being naturally exposed to the virus during their early years, is responsible for the increase in Britain.

Mumps can be very serious, leading to infertility in men and serious inflammation of various organs. In rare cases it can kill.

The 450 cases reported in England during the first quarter of this year equals the number of cases for all of 2002. During the same quarter, 370 cases of mumps were reported in Scotland four times more than in 2003.

Most of the cases involved young people in their early 20s or late teens.

While the number of mumps cases in Ireland has fluctuated between 57 and 32 in the five years to 2002 (latest year for which figures are available from the National Disease Surveillance Centre), the figure jumped suddenly from 27 to 422 between 1995 and 1996.

Dr Ó Cléirigh said there was a cohort of non-immunised children in Ireland, a section that included an influx of non-nationals who are not vaccinated against the disease, a situation that had increased the country's non-immunised pool.

"It is only a question of time before a case triggers a significant outbreak here. That case could be an Irish person who was abroad on holidays, a non-national coming into this country or a UK citizen visiting this country," he explained.

"Where there is significant cross-border traffic of individuals into a country that has a significant non-immunised pool, then it really is just a question of time before we have an outbreak," he said.

Recent controversy over possible links between the MMR vaccine and autism led to a decline in the number of children being vaccinated. It followed a study in medical journal The Lancet in 1998 which has now been largely discredited by the medical establishment.

Childhood vaccinations against mumps provides immunity for most people. People who have had the mumps are immune for life.