MMR injectionsHundreds of students have availed of vaccinations for mumps in three regional colleges where there were outbreaks recently.
The demand for the MMR jab, which contains the mumps vaccine, has been so great that the three centres are continuing clinics this week. So far, 1,705 students have received the vaccine.
The largest outbreak was at the Athlone Institute of Technology where 75 cases were recorded.
A spokeswoman for the Midland Health Board said there had been a vaccination programme at the college throughout last week and at least 1,100 people had availed of it.
"Most would be students, although I don't know if there were some young teachers as well, but as the college has about 4,000 students, at least a quarter have had the vaccination," she said.
Another outbreak in the Letterkenny Institute of Technology and surrounding community led to the North Western Health Board organising vaccination clinics last Thursday and Friday.
A spokeswoman said there were 10 cases of mumps in the college and 32 in the community.
A total of 305 students had availed of the vaccine at two clinics at the college last week. Another clinic has been planned for tomorrow due to demand.
The spokeswoman said the 32 cases in the community had no connection to the college and local GPs were offering the vaccine as they would normally. Those patients in the community were on average in their late teens or early 20s.
At Maynooth NUI five cases of mumps were recorded and about 300 students have been vaccinated.
Mr Colm Keane, head of communications at Maynooth NUI, said there was a very strong uptake.
"We had a very vigorous campaign offering the service and we will continue the vaccines all of next week. We will keep monitoring the situation and assess the needs. We plan to continue for as long as it's needed," he said.
A spokeswoman at the Eastern Regional Health Authority said they were investigating some other possible cases in the community.
The National Disease Surveillance Centre (NDSC) said in a statement on is website that since early this month, there had been an increase in mumps cases among teenagers and young adults.
This was more than double the number reported for the first 10 months of 2004.
"The cases appear to be occurring mainly in individuals who were never immunised or only received one dose of MMR which is the vaccine that contains the mumps vaccine," it said.
The symptoms can be slight fever, muscle ache, loss of appetite, headache and swelling of the parotid gland just in front and below the ear.
The illness usually recovers spontaneously after seven to 10 days, according to the NDSC. Close contacts of mumps sufferers are advised to visit their GP for an MMR vaccination.