Mumps outbreak as 2,000 cases reported

There has been a major outbreak of mumps in Ireland over the past 12 months with almost 2,000 cases of the highly infectious disease having been notified to the health authorities.

A significant number of the outbreaks were in the HSE South region which includes Cork, Kerry, Waterford and South Tipperary and where notifiable cases were twice the national average. However, the highest incidence of mumps was in the North-West.

The scale of the outbreak, since July 2014, has led the Health Protection Surveillance Centre to recommend an increase in the overall coverage of the MMR vaccine among teenagers and young adults to prevent similar large outbreaks in future.