Mumps Outbreak Causes Concern In Enid Schools

Enid schools are putting parents on high alert for cases of the mumps after two students tested positive for the disease. Despite being a required immunization, the mumps vaccine is only 88% effective.

Four cases of mumps were confirmed this week in Garfield County, the state Department of Health reported Wednesday night.

The age range for those currently affected is from 1 to 41 years of age, including students at Longfellow Middle School and Enid High School. The Garfield County health department is also investigating at least 34 more cases.

Mumps is a contagious disease caused by a virus. It typically starts with a few days of fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness, and loss of appetite, followed by swollen salivary glands, according to the CDC. 

Symptoms usually appear 16 to 18 days after infection. Infected individuals can transmit the virus two days before symptoms appear and up to five days after symptoms begin, the state health department said.

Enid Public Schools administrators are now telling students to stay home for five days at the first signs of fever and aches. Superintendent Dr. Darrell Floyd says, “It’s not the most conducive thing for students to not be coming to school, but also we have the entire health of our 8,000 student population and our employees to consider as well.”

They are also take precautions in the classroom. “Trying to cover their mouths when they cough and washing their hands and cleaning of desks and things like that,” Floyd says, “so we go through this periodically with things like the flu, and now here we’re dealing with mumps issues.”

Parents are scrambling to make sure their children have the MMR vaccine, which protects against mumps. Children typically receive it once when they are one-year-old and again around the age of four. Garfield County health department regional administrator Carla Dionne says, “That’s the number one caller, I think, is ‘I’m not really sure. Has my child had both their vaccinations?’ So we’ve got a lot of records checks going on right now.”

The mumps vaccine is only effective 88% of the time, however, so the health department is utilizing isolation rooms to quarantine people who may be contagious while they get tested. Nurses wear masks and the rooms have a separate oxygen supply from the rest of the health department building.

Despite a lack of guaranteed protection, the vaccine is still a requirement to attend public school unless a parent opts their child out for personal, medical or religious reasons. Floyd says, “We do have a handful of those, but then we have others that are simply just not compliant.”

Thursday was already a pre-established deadline for any students in Enid who had not completed their vaccinations. As of Friday, they cannot attend school without either an immunization or an opt-out.

If you or your child start feeling ill, you should see a doctor as soon as possible. Dionne suggests calling first to allow them to prepare for your arrival to prevent the spread of the virus.

Click here to learn more about the Mumps.