Harvard students in Cambridge, Mass., infected with the mumps have been quarantined, according to an article in The Harvard Crimson.
"We have officially an outbreak of mumps in this population...it's happening with students who are well-immunized, so it's a breakthrough infection. So the task is to get the population to act in ways that minimizes the spread of the virus," Paul J. Barreira, MD, director of Harvard University Health Services, told The Crimson.
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The Cambridge Public Health Department mandates that mumps-infected students be quarantined in a single room with an individual bathroom for five days. Since most dorm rooms share a bathroom, infected students have been moved elsewhere.
According to The Crimson, some at Harvard have wondered if adding a third booster shot to the student's vaccination regimen would help stop the spread of the virus. Dr. Barreira, citing CDC recommendations, asserted that a third booster shot would not help improve immunity.
Last week, officials confirmed that six students had been infected with the mumps. That total has not changed, according to The Crimson.
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