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MOUNT PLEASANT — Health officials in central Utah confirm new cases of the mumps have been identified in Sanpete County.
Initially, from two confirmed cases and one suspected, to now a total of six confirmed patients, with an additional five cases suspected.
While health officials won’t release specifics, they do say the new cases remain contained to the northern end of the county.
The outbreak has already forced the North Sanpete School District to keep unvaccinated students home since mid-April.
“So we understand there is one more confirmed case in our district,” said superintendent Sam Ray with the North Sanpete School District.
He says since the mumps outbreak was first reported on April 10, the district has followed the health department’s recommendation to keep all unvaccinated students or those without records of their immunizations out of school.
That was initially ten percent of students, however many of the “exempt” students are now back in class.
“We actually had quite a few kids who had been immunized, but the parents didn’t have the records when they registered them and their parents marked them as exempt and so those parents brought in the records," Ray said. "And then we have quite a few who have gone and been immunized, so we have cut that roughly in half."
For those students who have not been able to attend school, particularly those in 7-12th grades, they are using their school-issued iPads to do their classroom work through the district’s online system.
“The technology really helps the students to stay current in their classes and not get behind, we have tried to leverage that technology to help them stay caught up. We know it is not perfect. We are doing what we can to try to help these families,” he added.
With the 26-day exposure period for this outbreak of the mumps ending for the district on May 5th, unvaccinated students will be allowed to return to school on Monday, May 6.
“So we are following what the health department has told us we need to do and we are trying to make sure we take care of the kids and families we serve,” said Ray.
Health officials say those who remain unvaccinated can still get the vaccine from their health provider or local health department, which will help provide them some protection while this outbreak continues.
