A case of mumps in 5 Towns

A mumps outbreak that has infected many in Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish communities has found its way to the Five Towns, where an adult affiliated with a Woodmere yeshiva contracted the illness last week.

Bnot Shulamith Elementary School in Woodmere informed parents via e-mail of a confirmed case of mumps at the yeshiva and urged them to make sure their children receive a measles-mumps-rubella vaccine if they had not already done so. The vaccination is first given when a child is 12 to 15 months old, with a second dose administered between ages 4 and 6. Complications from mumps can include viral meningitis, hearing loss and reproductive problems in men.

The local exposure to the mumps comes in the wake of the New York City Department of Health's identification of hundreds of cases in Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish communities. Two months ago the agency issued a medical alert, announcing that young men in the predominantly Orthodox communities of Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Borough Park had experienced high levels of mumps for several months.

According to health authorities, the outbreak began last August at a summer camp for Orthodox Jewish boys in upstate Sullivan County, where an 11-year-old camper contracted the disease after visiting England. As of Feb. 8, the city health department had confirmed 909 cases of mumps and was investigating an additional 344. Most of the cases have involved males and an increasing number have been seen in young adults, ages 18 to 30, according to the agency.

Bnot Shulamith officials did not return calls seeking comment. The yeshiva, at 140 Irving Place in Woodmere, has a student population of 242 in grades 1 through 4, according to a school profile on the real estate search site trulia.com.

Mary Ellen Laurain, a spokeswoman for the Nassau County Department of Health, said the case involved an adult who lives in New York City, but she would not specify if it was a teacher or other employee. "There is no confirmed case of mumps for any Nassau County resident," said Laurain. "All those exposed were age-appropriately immunized."