UPDATE (10/24): At the recommendation of Onondaga County, Syracuse University will offer MMR shots to students, staff and faculty on Thursday (10/26) and Friday (10/27).
Syracuse University's Office of Health Services announced via email today that at the county's urging, it will begin offering a third measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot in booster clinics to contain the mumps outbreak on campus. On Thursday, Oct. 26 and Friday, Oct. 27, students, faculty and staff can register to get the shot between 9:30 a.m. and 5 p.m.
When an illness going around Syracuse University requires quarantine, it can sound scarier than it actually is.
Syracuse University has no plans to shut down campus no matter how many cases of mumps that break out. The reason? The mumps virus is not a life-threatening illness.
Though highly contagious, mumps is an “easily containable disease,” according to SU's Office of Health Services website. Vaccinations and healthy habits can severely limit the outbreak.
"There is no reason to leave campus and no reason to be alarmed,” the site says.