Industry News
The number of confirmed cases of mumps at Keystone Resort, CO has risen to 26, and now includes two people who aren’t employees of the resort, health officials said.
As of Thursday, 24 of the infected were Keystone Resort employees and the other two were non-employees, according to The Summit Daily News.
Summit County health officials are investigating how the non-employees were infected but said the risk of infection to resort guests and the larger community is low and limited to people who come in close physical contact with someone who is infected.
The outbreak began on 2nd February with three cases initially reported.
People may want to check their vaccine status to ensure they are protected against mumps. The MMR Vaccine, which covers measles, mumps, and rubella is considered 88 percent effective at preventing mumps from spreading.
Mumps is a viral disease caused by the mumps virus. Initial signs and symptoms often include fever, muscle pain, headache, poor appetite, and feeling generally unwell. This is then usually followed by painful swelling of one or both parotid salivary glands. Symptoms typically occur 16 to 18 days after exposure and resolve after 7 to 10 days. Symptoms are often more severe in adults than in children. About a third of people have mild or no symptoms.
Mumps is highly contagious and spreads rapidly among people living in close quarters. The virus is transmitted by respiratory droplets or direct contact with an infected person. Only humans get and spread the disease. People are infectious from about 7 days before the onset of parotid inflammation to about 8 days after. Once an infection has run its course, a person is typically immune for life.
Last summer an outbreak of mumps in Colorado was traced back to Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.
For more information about mumps, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) atย www.cdc.gov/mumps. For information about mumps data in Colorado, visitย www.colorado.gov/cdphe/mumps.
