The months-long Arkansas mumps outbreak may be coming to a close as health officials are detecting fewer cases.
As of Monday, the Arkansas Department of Health tallied 2,421 mumps cases since the outbreak began in August 2016. The new count marks a five case increase since Jan. 3, a substantially lower rate of infection detection than during the outbreak's peak.
"At the height of this outbreak, we were seeing 40 or 50 cases a day," Dirk Haselow, MD, PhD, state epidemiologist, said in late December as school winter breaks brought the possibility of interrupting viral transmission, according to Arkansas Online. "Hopefully this will be the start of the end."
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