Island exposed because of MMR vaccine shortage

STOCKS of the MMR vaccine which prevents mumps are so low that some people would have to go without if there was a major outbreak. 'Guernsey is currently receiving 50 doses a week, which will be sufficient only for our normal requirements,' said director of public health Dr David Jeffs yesterday.

But he said that last year's epidemic had peaked and was tailing off.

He said that the vaccine has been in short supply due to the catch-up campaign in the UK where it had been offered to adolescents who had missed it.

But additional supplies had been found in Germany.

He said that at present, mumps in Guernsey seems to have followed a classic epidemic curve with a steep rise to a peak in the autumn and a steady decline since then.

'This may be because the Immunisation Advisory Group encouraged family practitioners to offer MMR to 18- to 23 year-olds in Guernsey, especially if they were going away to university, to join the armed forces etc.,' he said.

The MMR vaccine was introduced in 1988 and led to a dramatic fall in notified cases of mumps. But young people who are now over 18 have generally had no protection against it.

Dr Jeffs said that since late-2002 there had been an upsurge in notified cases. In the UK there were between 400 and 500 a quarter during 2003, rising to 3,000 in the last quarter of 2004 and 5,000 in the first month of this year.

Until August, there had been only sporadic notifications of mumps in Guernsey.

However, in line with England. the island has seen a steady increase of cases with three notifications in August, one in September, 16 in October and 15 in November before dropping back to four in December and the same number between January and April.

All except one who contracted it was born between 1981 and 1987.

'It should be emphasised that these are officially notified cases, usually confirmed by detection of mumps antibodies in saliva, but we know, anecdotally, that family practitioners have seen more cases,' said Dr Jeffs.

He said that mumps should be treated seriously as it can cause inflammation of the breasts and ovaries in five to 15% of young women, inflammation of the testes in 20% of young men, encephalitis in one in 6,000 people and deafness in one in 15,000 people who contact the disease.

There was also an increased risk of miscarriage if contracted during the first trimester of pregnancy.