A mumps outbreak is occurring in your community, with higher attack rates among post-secondary students.

Mumps is a contagious viral illness spread by respiratory droplets, with transmission occurring from shortly before symptom onset through the early symptomatic period. MCCQE objectives in outbreak management emphasize using effective, feasible source control measures that reduce onward transmission. The most effective intervention listed is exclusion (isolation) of symptomatic clinical cases from school and workplace during the infectious period, because symptomatic individuals are the main identifiable sources of spread and removal from congregate settings directly reduces contact rates and secondary cases.

Antivirals are not standard, effective therapy for mumps and do not control outbreaks. Excluding asymptomatic contacts before symptoms develop is generally less effective and often impractical, because many contacts will never become ill and transmission may already occur before recognition; blanket exclusion can also cause major disruption with limited incremental benefit. Closing an entire post-secondary institution is a high-impact measure with uncertain added benefit compared with targeted case exclusion and is typically reserved for extreme circumstances. Immunoglobulin is not an effective post-exposure prophylaxis for mumps. Therefore, isolating/excluding clinical cases is the best and most effective intervention among the options.