Students participate in mumps study

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be asking student donors at the KU Blood Drive to participate in a mumps study in light of the mumps exposure on campus in Spring 2006.

Students will be given the opportunity to allow CDC to test small blood samples of their donation for levels of mumps antibody concentrations, which can make a student more susceptible to the infection, or can protect a student from infection.

“It’s a unique outbreak that we haven’t seen in decades,” said Margaret Cortese, CDC medical epidemiologist. “We are trying to better understand why it occurred. We don’t have all the answers, but by talking to these students, it can help us answer the remaining questions.”

In addition to the blood test, students will answer a questionnaire about their living situation, exposure to the mumps and possible development of mumps symptoms. Students must also give CDC permission to look at their Mumps, Measles and Rubella vaccine immunization records and other medical charts since January 2006.

Cortese said the University of Kansas had required two doses of the MMR vaccine since 1993. She said about 95 percent of students had received the vaccine before the outbreak.

pullquote

That means the vaccine is working. The other 99 percent of the roommates were protected.

-CDC medical epidemiologist Margaret Cortese

In a roommate study conducted by a CDC representative on campus last year, only one of 93 participating students who were roommates with someone infected with mumps ended up contracting the disease themselves.

“That means the vaccine is working,” Cortese said. “The other 99 percent of the roommates were protected.”

Albert Barskey, epidemiologist and CDC representative at the KU Blood Drive, said, that as of Monday, 40 returning donors were participating in the study.

“So far, the study is going well,” Barskey said. “Students are very interested and enthusiastic.”

Barskey said that it was regular procedure for blood banks to keep small samples of blood donations to use for blood-type testing. Whatever is left from the blood bank’s tests the CDC will use for its antibody testing.

Alyssa Aude, Green Bay, Wis., freshman, said she donated last fall and was approached by CDC representatives after donating Tuesday to participate in the study.

“I don’t mind helping out,” Aude said. “Once they figure out what happened last year, they might be able to prevent problems in the future.”

Kansan staff writer Danae DeShazer can be contacted at ddeshazer@kansan.com.

— Edited by Ashley Thompson

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