Swapping Spit

...or How one gets the Mumps.

This quote from Meghan Harris, MPH, of the Iowa Department of Health (via ProMed), attempts to explain why college students are particularly affected in the ongoing mumps outbreak in Iowa:

The 300 confirmed, probable, or suspected cases of mumps represent the nation's largest mumps outbreak in 17 years. Early on, most of the Iowa cases were reported in college-age students. The mean age at onset was 21, and almost 45 percent of the cases occurred in 19-year-olds. But Harris said that no single college or university was implicated in the outbreak.

"We can assume that this outbreak is associated with some aspects of college life, such as living in dorms or mixing together at the same clubs," she said. The best explanation, according to Harris, is that college students "in general have a higher risk of sharing saliva."

Not something they put in the catalogue, I'll bet...