Three Cases Of Mumps Confirmed In Toronto
Posted May 15, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Toronto has recorded three cases of the mumps – and health officials fear there could be more out there. The city’s Health Department confirmed the cases Tuesday afternoon. Two of those infected have been directly tied an outbreak in Nova Scotia. A third came into contact with one of the others and it’s that patient’s presence that has raised concerns. That person was a CD release party at the Super Market Restaurant at 268 Augusta Ave. on May 10th and wasn’t aware of the illness at that point. The patient in question was there between 9pm and 3am. If you were, too, and have never had the disease, you may want to watch for symptoms or ask your doctor for advice.
“Toronto Public Health investigators have been unable to identify all of the individuals who shared drinks or cigarettes with this ill person to inform them of their potential exposure to mumps,” a release reads. Mumps can be spread through saliva and something as simple as drinking out of an infected person’s glass or sneezing can infect someone who’s never had it before.
Officials stress the diner in question is totally innocent in all this and safe to eat at, and that the warning is purely precautionary. Only those who attended the specific time period and day may have to be checked. And they note it’s important not to panic, but to take action. “The mumps is here, and now we have to be aware that there may be spread,” assesses Dr. Barbara Yafee, the Associate Medical Officer of Health. She advising anyone born between 1970 and 1990, who attends post-secondary school or is a health care worker, get a mumps booster shot.
The owner of the eatery isn’t happy about the association that’s suddenly descended on his popular bistro. “People understand that there is nothing about the restaurant that led to people getting the mumps and hopefully people are wise and intelligent enough and aren’t hysterical to draw the wrong conclusions,” pleads Rob Eklove. “But it is not the kind of attention that anybody in business would want.”
The mumps outbreak originally began earlier this year out east and doctors had been warning that with colleges letting out and students travelling back to their homes across the country, there was a chance they could be taking the contagious disease with them. Mumps in adults can have serious consequences, including sterility and deafness. The good news if you’ve already had it as a child, you’re said to have a lifelong immunity and can’t get the ailment again.
It’s not the first word of an outbreak in Ontario. Previous cases in Ottawa, York and Waterloo have directly been tied to Nova Scotia, which has had at least 222 confirmed patients.
