Grant County resident diagnosed with mumps

MOSES LAKE — A Grant County resident contracted mumps while visiting Iowa last week.

The resident’s disease was lab-confirmed by the Grant County Health District. There are no additional cases of mumps at this time, a district spokesperson stated.

The district suggests some people travelling to various places could have been exposed during the resident’s infectious period. If people were at any of the following places on the specific date and time, the district asks them to visit their doctor.

Place and locations of potential exposure:

• May 14 - 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at a track meet in Ellensburg;

• May 14 - 6:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Valley Cafe in Ellensburg;

• May 15 - In the morning at Cambridge Assisted Living in Quincy;

• May 15 - Starting at 6:30 p.m. at Columbia Cinemas in East Wenatchee, watching “Robin Hood;”

• May 15 - 9 p.m. at the Olive Garden in East Wenatchee.

Mumps is a contagious disease spread by saliva or mucus from the mouth, nose or throat of an infected person when they cough, sneeze or talk. Items touched by an infected person can spread it to others if those items are shared.

Health district employees report it can take as long as 25 days for symptoms of the disease to appear. An infected person can spread the disease to another person from three days before they develop symptoms, to nine days after onset of the symptoms.

Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness, loss of appetite and swollen glands under the ears, jaw or both sides of the face. Health district employees urge residents developing these symptoms to stay at home for five days after symptoms go away, and to contact their health care provider before seeking medical care, so as not to expose others to the disease in the waiting room.

Two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine will provide immunity to mumps, but can’t prevent infection if exposure already occurred. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that children receive the first dose of mumps-containing vaccine at 12-15 months and the second dose at 4-6 years old.

For more information, visit www.cdc.gov/mumps/about/index.html.

The Grant County Health District’s Moses Lake office number is 509-766-7960 and the Ephrata office number is 509-754-6060.