For the first time in more than five years, public health officials in the Guelph area are dealing with mumps.
As of Friday afternoon, five students at either Bishop Macdonell Catholic High School or Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School were said to have the virus.
According to Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, mumps is typically spread person-to-person through discharge from an infected person’s mouth, or through contact with objects used by an infected person.
On average, symptoms take more than two weeks to appear.
All five infected students had been vaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella, the health unit said.
The vaccine is considered to be 88 per cent effective.
Before this week, there had not been a confirmed case of mumps in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph since 2010.
