Recent Mumps Outbreaks Linked to Waning Vaccine Protection

Susan Scutti, CNN-

Over recent years, both the US and Europe have seen a rise in mumps outbreaks. According to a recent study published by the Science Translational Medicine Journal, the rise in cases could be due to waning vaccine protection from the MMR vaccine mumps component, which immunizes against mumps, measles, and rubella. Researchers examined data on vaccine effectiveness studies and recent mumps outbreaks. The focus was on understanding why there was a rise in mumps outbreaks recently, especially on college campuses, when most of the the individuals affected by the outbreaks had received the two required doses of MMR. In conclusion to their study, researchers found that the vaccine can protect against new strains of mumps but protection by the vaccine decreases over time. Researchers predict that the vaccine can protect against mumps for approximately 27 years, with a 25% loss in protection after 8 years and 50% loss in protection after 19 years. During the study, researches did not find any data inference that the measles or rubella components suffered from similar loss of vaccine protection over time.

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