HALIFAX - The number of mumps cases in Nova Scotia has climbed to 302 and will likely continue to grow, health officials said Friday.
Officials said the increase of 30 cases over the past week is part of a normal outbreak cycle.
Medical health officer Dr. Robert Strang said doctors had anticipated an increase because of the infectious nature of the disease.
"We're past the peak of the outbreak, but it's going to be weeks to a few months -- even well into the summer -- before we really anticipate the outbreak being over,'' he said.
The outbreak began in February at Halifax-area universities.
The Public Health Agency of Canada is also reporting 45 cases in New Brunswick, two in Prince Edward Island, 11 in Ontario and one in Alberta.
Health officials in British Columbia have reported three cases.
Strang said he's also heard that Manitoba has had one recent case, but the national health agency could not confirm that information.
More than 60 per cent of patients are between 17 and 24.
Since the mid-1990s, children have been given two shots to prevent the mumps, measles and rubella.
But young adults between 17 and 24 are most at risk because their age group never got that second booster shot.
Symptoms of the mumps include aches, pains, fever, loss of appetite and swollen saliva glands, although complications can sometimes be much more serious.
People with the mumps are typically told to stay home for nine days to prevent infecting others but can actually be contagious up to a week before they even show symptoms.
Others can become infected without ever developing symptoms.
Although the focus in Nova Scotia has been on the mumps, Strang said it's important to realize that the vaccine also guards against measles and rubella.
"It's not just about mumps. We have some recent measles activity around the world -- there's an outbreak in Japan and there's been some other sporadic cases in the United States.''
Strang said he's only aware of a couple of reported cases of the measles in Canada -- none in Nova Scotia.
