Metro Vancouver residents are being urged to check their vaccination history following an outbreak of mumps.Globe files
The BC Centre for Disease Control is urging people in Metro Vancouver to check their immunization records as an outbreak of mumps hits the region.
There have been 77 cases of mumps across the Coastal and Fraser health authorities, with victims ranging in age from one to 54.
Most of the mumps cases have been diagnosed in young adults and the centre says this is the first sizable outbreak of the disease since 2008.
That was when 192 cases of mumps were reported in B.C., most of them linked to an outbreak in the Fraser Health Authority between February and September.
Mumps is a contagious disease spread by coughing or sneezing, and also by direct contact such as kissing, sharing utensils or water bottles.
Symptoms include fever, sore throat or cough, swelling of the salivary glands, and in severe cases can cause meningitis, inflammation of the testicles, sterility or serious complications such as deafness.