Arkansas university: Employees are not obeying vaccine terms

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville had 194 faculty and staff members who had not complied with a state vaccination directive in response to a campus mumps outbreak, a university official said.

Terry Martin, the university's senior vice provost for academic affairs, told the faculty senate on Wednesday that more than 4,600 of the school's roughly 4,800 workers had complied with the directive as of Tuesday, but that doesn't excuse the workers who hadn't. Of the 194 who hadn't, 21 were instructors.

"We're expecting people to be in compliance," Martin said.

Though the vast majority of people recover from mumps, it can cause serious complications.

There had been 37 mumps cases at UA as of Friday, according to the state Health Department. The total dates back to September, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

In December, the department issued a directive giving university employees until Jan. 10 to prove they were immune or that they had had two doses of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

This directive followed another one in November requiring students to have two MMR vaccinations or be excluded from campus activities.

Martin told the faculty senate that there were still 59 students who couldn't attend class, including 16 with state-granted exemptions from vaccine requirements. About 27,500 students enrolled in UA in the fall.

State law allows vaccine exemptions for religious, philosophical or medical reasons. But the exemptions does not allow people to attend class or work on campus.

Two doses of the vaccine cannot be given at once, so employees who have received one dose since December are allowed to work on campus.

The same goes for students. Martin noted that several students have had only one MMR vaccine dose and can attend class but are still required to get the second
shot.

An outbreak will only be declared over when two incubation periods have passed with no new cases, according to the Health Department.

An incubation period generally refers to the amount of time it takes for symptoms to appear after exposure, which the department said is 26 days for mumps.

The earliest the outbreak could be declared over is Feb. 10, Martin said.

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