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- A severe mumps outbreak continues to worsen as almost twice as many Aucklanders have caught the illness in the last 10 months as in the two decades prior.
- The Auckland Regional Public Health Service says 527 people have now had confirmed or likely cases of mumps in the 10 months to October 5.
- By comparison, just 286 people caught the illness - which is spread through the air by breathing, coughing and sneezing - in the 20 years prior from 1997 to January 1, 2017.
- "What we have in Auckland right now with mumps is a severe outbreak situation," Medical officer of health Josephine Herman says.
- She said the outbreak was hitting Pacific and Māori communities and those aged between 10-and-24 years the hardest.
- While about 80 percent of children aged up to 12 are immunised against mumps, Dr Herman says there was now a "lost generation" of young people in their mid-20s, who weren't fully immunised.
- This was because of changes made in 2001 to the age at which children were supposed to get their second dose.
- - - a free vaccine available from local doctors.
- "We need people to ensure they have had two doses of the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine," Dr Hermann said.
- Mumps can cause painful swelling of the gland around the face and jaw, fever and headaches.
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