Three emergency department employees at the Hospital of Central Connecticut in New Britain have contracted the mumps, and the hospital is now offering a third dose of the mumps vaccine to other ED employees, according to WTNH, an ABC TV affiliate.
The three employees started experiencing symptoms within days of each other, making it likely they were all exposed to the same patient, physicians said. The original mumps patient has not been identified, although the exposure is believed to have occurred between Nov. 29 and Dec. 3.
The CDC recommends receiving two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, and now, the hospital is encouraging ED employees to get a third dose. The hospital also plans to offer a third dose of the vaccine to all employees after the additional dose has been distributed to ED staff who may have been exposed.
The news comes on the heels of a Dec. 23 announcement that the University of Connecticut identified several cases of mumps among students at its Storrs, Conn., campus in the fall semester.