School vaccination drive to tackle mumps

PUBLIC health officials have taken the drastic step of writing to schools offering to vaccinate students against mumps in an attempt to crack down on an increasing number of outbreaks of the disease.

Already in 2009, there has been a 15-fold increase in the number of infections — 1,957 compared to 128 for the same period last year.

In an effort to control the growing number of outbreaks, the HSE has written to school principals offering the MMR (Mumps, Measles and Rubella) vaccine to transition, fifth and sixth year students in secondary schools prior to the summer break. The letters went out this week.