Mumps outbreak at ICA

Published 2:39 pm Thursday, June 6, 2019

The Immigration Centers of America (ICA) Farmville Detention Center has 16 confirmed or suspected cases of mumps, according to a spokesperson with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“As of June 6, there are 16 confirmed or suspected mumps cases at Farmville Detention Center,” spokesperson Carissa Cutrell said in a statement Thursday. “ICE detainees in a detention facility are cohorted (separated from the general population) if they were exposed to someone with confirmed, probable or suspected mumps. This practice continues for 25 days after the most recent exposure is found.”

Cutrell said that the ICE Health Service Corps and the Farmville Detention Center medical staff are working closely with the Virginia Department of Health to prevent the infection from spreading.

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“Visitation at the facility has been canceled until further notice, and the facility is not taking in any new detainees,” Cutrell said.

Mumps is a virus in which common signs and symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, fatigue, and swelling and tenderness of one or more salivary glands under the ears or jaw on one or both sides of the face (parotitis).

Symptoms of mumps usually appear 16 to 18 days after exposure, but may appear any time within 12 to 25 days after exposure, according to documentation from the Virginia Department of Health. Mumps is contagious from two days before until five days after the onset of swelling.