No Mumps Vaccination, No School

The Regional Health District in Spokane WA has ordered unvaccinated students to stay home.

This order applies to schools where mumps cases have been previously reported.

To stay in school, students must either prove they received the MMR vaccine, or have a blood test to prove that they are immune to vaccines. Each school has a different start date for the exclusion order depending on when its first case of mumps was reported.

The students could potentially be out of school for longer than 25 days.

The health order also applies to staff members at those schools. Staff members have different start dates than students.

“Our health officer has the legal authority to issue exclusion orders in the midst of an outbreak,” said health district spokeswoman Kim Papich. “We can mandate that they’re excluded from school or work for 25 days.”

“When we see multiple cases at a school, that’s when we issue the exclusion order.”

“Keeping unvaccinated students home is about more than halting the spread of the disease,” Papich said. “That’s more to protect them than it is to stem the disease.”

The move has sent district officials scrambling for a way to make sure the affected students have a way to keep up with their schoolwork while they’re gone.

Papich said, “that if an additional case is reported at a school under an exclusion order, the 25-day clock starts over.”

There are now 36 confirmed and probable cases of the mumps in Spokane County. There are currently more cases of the mumps in Washington state than in the rest of the country combined.

According to the Centers of Disease and Control (CDC), the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine itself is 88 percent effective after two doses, so it is still possible to catch the disease even after vaccination.

However, those who have been vaccinated usually have milder symptoms and are less contagious.

Merck is the manufacturer of the mumps vaccinations. MMR and ProQuad both contain the protection for mumps, as well as protection for measles, rubella. ProQuad additionally protects against varicella.

The CDC recommends that children receive get two doses of MMR vaccine:

• the first dose at 12 through 15 months of age
• the second dose at 4 through 6 years of age
• children can receive the second dose earlier as long as it is at least 28 days after the first dose

Students at post-high school educational institutions, such as college, trade schools, and training programs, who do not have evidence of immunity (protection) against mumps need two doses of MMR vaccine, separated by at least 28 days.

The CDC Vaccine Price Lists posted on this website provide current vaccine contract prices and list the private sector vaccine prices for general information. The information can be found here.