Graduate issues vaccination appeal amid mumps outbreak

Monday 16 September 2019

A local graduate is urging students to ensure their jabs are up-to-date as Freshers’ Week begins after he was forced to miss his graduation due to catching mumps – despite being vaccinated as a child.

Joss MacDonald’s warning comes as cases of the contagious viral infection - which causes painful facial swelling and can, in extreme cases, cause sterility in males - have hit a 10-year high in the UK, driven up by outbreaks at universities.

Having just finished a physical theatre course at university, the 23-year-old returned to the island for a weekend to see his family. On the Sunday, he started feeling pain in his jaw hinge. The next day, the right side of his jaw has swollen to “hefty water balloon size.”

“Luckily, it was not on both sides,” Joss recalled to Express. “The pain was a lot worse in the morning or when I was trying to eat. My mum [who also had mumps after Joss] described it as having 'The mump, the hump and the grump.'”

“I came back for the weekend and ended up staying for a week,” Joss added. “I could not fly back for my graduation, which was a bit of a shame.”

Pictured: Joss thought at first that his wisdom teeth might be causing the pain in his jaw.

Joss said he felt “noticeable pain” for three to four days, but that the swelling took longer to go down. The following week, he flew back to the UK, but it wasn't long before his brother, sister and parents - all of whom were also vaccinated as children - began to suffer.

“I infected everyone - everyone that I came into contact with had it,” Joss said. “I felt really bad, I didn’t know I had it. There’s a long gestation and you don’t know you have it until it’s too late.”

Earlier in the year, in February, someone – “the patient zero” - had come into Joss’s circle with mumps and made contact with several people, including Joss. “It caused about 15 people at college to get some form of it,” Joss said.

Having been vaccinated when he was a child, Joss didn’t think he could catch mumps and was baffled as to what was causing the pain and the swelling - as was his doctor.

Pictured: Joss returned to his doctor three times.

“There was lots of confusion. I went to the doctor two or three times,” he explained. “I also went to the dentist because we thought it was my wisdom teeth. We were all very confused trying to figure out what it was. The doctor took a swab and a blood sample. He said it was hard to believe that it was mumps.”

Joss is now urging Jersey students setting off for university for the first time or returning for a new year to ensure they have received the appropriate vaccines to ensure they don't suffer more serious complications if they get infected.

“It was confusing why I had caught it, but it was much less severe than if I hadn’t been vaccinated. It could have been a lot worse," he said, later adding: “For men, it’s more of an issue. It can go down in the testicles and it can make you sterile, which luckily didn’t happen for me.”

Cases of mumps have recently seen an increase in the UK, driven by outbreaks at universities across the country earlier this year. 795 cases were confirmed in the second quarter alone and nearly half of those affected were unvaccinated.

Earlier this month, Public Health England urged freshers and returning university students to check they were up to date with student vaccines before the start of the new term, particularly MMR - Measles, Mumps and Rubella - and MenACWY – which protects against meningitis and septicaemia (blood poisoning).

Pictured: There have been several mumps outbreaks at UK universities this year.

They explained that, while mumps usually passes without causing serious illness, it can sometimes lead to viral meningitis if the virus moves into the outer layer of the brain.

Dr Julie Yates, Lead Consultant for Screening and Immunisation for Public Health England South West, said that the latest quarterly figures were the highest since 2009.

"Starting college or university is an important and exciting time. As parents we want to make sure our children, whatever age they are are, are as safe and prepared as they can be when they start on this new adventure,” she said.

"One of the things we can do is check to make sure that our young people have had all their vaccinations, especially two doses of MMR and the MenACWY vaccine and, if not, make them an appointment to have them before the university term starts. Measles is easy to catch and can kill. Vaccines are there to stop the spread of disease and save lives.

“It’s never too late to protect yourself and others.”

Pictured: Joss is urging students to get vaccinated to avoid catching mumps, which can cause severe complications.

Joss urged students from the Channel Islands to be “as protected as possible” before they go back to university. “When I went to university, it was amazing that we got the meningitis jab for free,” he said.

The graduate added that his experience, which was fortunately complication-free, "shows how important" getting the jab is, adding: "God knows what would have happened if I had not had it."

“Mumps can be really severe. People do need to consider what it can do and turn into. You can avoid this with a little vaccination or injection. Put your mind at rest.”