BREEZY POINT — The number of confirmed and "probable" cases of the mumps on the Rockaway peninsula has spiked from 3 to 20, officials from the city's Health Department said Tuesday.
The DOH is investigating a cluster of cases on the peninsula, spread between July and September of this year, a spokesman said.
The majority of those infected have been adults, and there have been cases from Breezy Point to Arverne, a spokesman said.
Last month, the DOH reported three people in Far Rockaway had been infected with the disease, which is spread virally through droplets.
It was the first cluster of mumps cases in 2015, although there had been 25 individual cases since January, according to the health department.
There was an outbreak at Fordham University in 2014 with more than 50 cases reported at the Bronx college, later spreading to its Lincoln Center campus.
The health department advises those sick with the disease to stay home while infectious, which they say is five days after salivary gland swelling.
They've supplied two Joseph P. Addabbo Family Health Centers on the peninsula with the MMR vaccine. The centers are located at 62-00 Beach Channel Drive in Arverne and 1288 Central Ave. in Far Rockaway.
