Childhood immunizations in the United States
Mumps is a contagious disease caused by the virus by the same name. Since most people in the United States have been vaccinated, mumps is now a rare disease in this country. Currently there are no specific treatments for mumps.
Mumps is spread person to person by droplets of saliva or mucus from the mouth, nose or throat of an infected person. This is done through coughing, sneezing, talking, and coming into contact with contaminate items. Transmission likely occurs before the salivary glands swell an up to 5 days after the swelling begins.
Mumps outbreaks in the 21st century
In the United Kingdom, between the years of 2004–2006, a mumps outbreak has involved more than 70,000 patients. The cause of the outbreak is low immunity in those too old to have received MMR, but young enough to have not developed natural immunity through exposure. A catch-up programme of immunisation of under twenty-five-year-olds, particularly in university towns such as Exeter was implemented.Since the United States implemented its mumps vaccination program in 1967, the number of mumps infections in the U.S. reported to the CDC has typically ranged from a few hundred to a few thousand per year. Every few years, the number of reported mumps cases spikes due to an outbreak, usually isolated to a specific community or region of the country. Recent outbreaks have primarily been associated with college campus settings.Arkansas' first reported case of mumps in 2016 was on August 31 in Springdale. As of December 16, 2016, Arkansas has 2200 cases of mumps, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that Arkansas leads the nation in mumps cases during the current outbreak. The high number of infections in Arkansas has prompted monitoring of the outbreak by the Louisiana Office of Public Health. Louisiana currently has no cases of mumps, but authorities are urging people in the state to take precautions due to outbreaks in the border states of Arkansas and Texas.There have been three confirmed cases of the mumps at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Two cases at Loyola University Chicago, and has spread to three other neighboring counties in the Southern Illinois area. There has also been one confirmed case at Knox College, in Galesburg (Western Illinois). Wheaton College has also been affected by 93 cases since early September (as of Jan 9).
In early 2006, for reasons still not fully understood, the state of Iowa experienced a large surge in the number of reported mumps infections.  According to the New York Times, college students accounted for about a quarter of the 245 cases , while about half of the cases are people aged seventeen to twenty five.
Doctors are attributing the rise in mumps case frequency to low vaccination rates in Iowa's youth, coupled with the close quarters in dormitories, classrooms and cafeterias.
According to Canadian media reports, there may be something novel about this mumps strain which indicates a standard MMR-series vaccination is not 95% effective, as was thought.