Local officials on the lookout for mumps

Local health officials are keeping an eye on the outbreak of mumps that's hit six Midwestern states. It began in Iowa and spread to Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota and Oklahoma, affecting more than 1,150 people — and the CDC says it expects the mumps to spread.

About two dozen cases of mumps are reported in Texas every year; so far this year, nine cases have been reported. None of them has been linked to the mumps outbreak in the Midwest, but local officials don't want to take chances. Raplh Feigin of the Baylor College of Medicine told KHOU all children should be immunized: "If they're not immunized, they're the ones who are going to spread it to adults if we have an outbreak in the community," he said. At UH, the health clinic is encouraging students to get the vaccine if they haven't, and to practice good hygiene if they have (based on Houstonist's time in college, that might be a tall order) — many mumps sufferers in the Midwest have been college students, and the disease could spread easily in dorms.

If you're not familiar with mumps, check out the CDC's info on the disease. It's one of those potentially nasty ones everyone used to get, back in the days before vaccination; mumps causes fever, muscle ache, tiredness and swelling of salivary glands, especially those near the jaw line below the ears. Complications from mumps are rare, but the disease can lead to meningitis, encephalitis and deafness.