85,000 teenagers vaccinated against mumps in bid to contain outbreak

MORE than 85,000 teenagers were vaccinated against the mumps at school in the last term before summer holidays as part of a campaign to contain a major outbreak of the disease.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) carried out the MMR vaccination programme in response to a significant rise in mumps cases among teenagers and young adults in the first few months of the year.

With the more than 1,700 cases reported by early April being more than all of last year’s instances, health authorities sought to vaccinate as many as possible of the 120,000 students from fourth to sixth year in the country’s 740 schools.