The Director of Student Health and Counseling Center says the student has been isolated from the public for five days.
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Campus doctors are now keeping an eye out for other cases.
Mumps symptoms include fever, headache, muscles aches, tiredness, and loss of appetite. Dr. Dirk Haselow, the Arkansas State Epidemiologist, says mumps is a disease that became uncommon with the advent of vaccines. “Rarely, people can develop deafness, encephalitis”. Usually people have those symptoms for about a week and they get better.
Three school districts have reported mumps cases after the Huntsville School District recently seen confirmed cases.
There will be an informational meeting about the mumps Wednesday, Sept. 14, at 6 p.m.at Rogers Heritage High School.
The Arkansas Department of Health will also be offering free MMR vaccinations, which cover the mumps, measles and rubella, September 21 from 8 a.m.to 6 p.m.at the Jones Center in Springdale.
Those who have been vaccinated have some protection right away, although the vaccine takes two weeks to reach full strength, he said.
The outbreak was first reported August 31 in the Springdale School District and has spread since then. Without the vaccines, he said, one of them wouldn’t be able to play in the school band, and another one wouldn’t be able to participate in the school play.
Republican state Sen. Missy Irvin said parents who signed vaccine exemption forms shouldn’t be surprised when their child is removed from school during an outbreak.
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The department interviewed that person and ensured that all the people who were in close contact with that person and the Arkansas adult who was infected were up to date on their vaccinations.
