Saliva antibody testing and vaccination in a mumps outbreak

Saliva antibody testing was performed to describe the epidemiology of an outbreak of mumps and identify susceptible children. Thirty-three out of 171 children (19%) were designated susceptible. A past history of mumps illness was found to be unreliable. No further cases of mumps were notified after 28 susceptible children were given MMR vaccine. The use of MMR vaccination may have contributed to the control of this outbreak and its use should be considered where a defined population is expected to have a significant proportion of susceptible individuals.