Health unit advises taking precautions to ward off mumps

There are no known instances of mumps in the region, but some cases elsewhere in Ontario has prompted an advisory from the Sudbury District Health Unit.  Mumps is a virus that causes your salivary glands to swell.  It spreads from person-to-person by coughs and sneezes or sharing water bottles and utensils with an infected person.  There are varying symptoms but also women with mumps who become pregnant could miscarriage within the first three months.  People can protect themselves with a mumps vaccine which you normally get as a child before starting school.  The health unit says it’s a good idea if you’re an adult born between 1970 and 1992 to consider getting another vaccine shot.       The health unit says the last known case of mumps in its coverage area was 2010.