New Vaccine Requirements Shouldn't Affect Most Kids

Maryland school kids will be required next year to receive two doses of the Measles Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine but, according to a Montgomery County spokesperson, the change shouldn't affect many students.

According to the Baltimore Sun, in March and April, more than a dozen cases of mumps were reported at Loyola University. 

Currently, the state requires students to have two measles shots, but just one mumps shot. The new standard was implemented to require students get two mumps shots.

About 200 of the approximately 140,000 students that attend Montgomery County Public Schools will be affected by this new regulation, said Mary Anderson, public information officer for the Department of Health, in an email to Patch. 

"Our school nurses will be going through immunization records over the summer and notifying the students affected that they’ll have to get the immunization before the start of the school year," Anderson wrote.

Students without insurance can get shots through county immunization clinics and kids with coverage will go to their own doctors, she said.

Mumps is caused by a bacteria that spreads from person-to-person in the air through coughing and sneezing. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the most common symptom of mumps is painful swelling of the salivary glands—between the ear and the jaw.  

Before this year’s outbreak, in 2011, the last year numbers were available from the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, there were two cases of mumps in the state—one in Howard County and one in Allegany County.