Councilman Mihai Magdei of the Moldova Noastra Alliance faction demanded at Tuesday’s City Council meeting that the Municipal Centre for Preventive Medicine and the Healthcare Division produce a report on the causes of the expanding mumps outbreak and solutions to stop it. The number of mumps cases detected in the country soared to 2,000, and it’s time for the municipality to start exploring solutions, including of financial nature, said Magdei. Deputy Mayor Igor Lupulciuc told Info-Prim Neo that the Ministry of Health is now conducting negotiations to provide Moldova with mumps shots. At the same time, the City Hall could soon propose the Council to allocate funds for vaccinating the Chisinau residents. Mihai Moldovan, head of the Municipal Healthcare Division, said the city needs 120,000 vaccines, and namely measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) shots, to immunise young persons aged between 15 and 29 years, who hadn’t been included in vaccination lists before. Dr. Moldovan considers that if shots against mumps only are preferred over MMR vaccines, in five years we could see rubella and measles breaking out in the country. According to him, the Ministry of Health needs some 8 million lei to purchase shots for the entire country, but, given that a third of mumps cases have been reported in Chisinau, the municipality’s financial contribution could help ease the burden. Mihai Moldovan said a successful mumps treatment doesn’t makes a patient immune to new infection; that is why vaccination is recommended for grown-ups, too. While healthcare officials avoid the term ‘epidemic’ when describing the current situation, they do not exclude that the number of mumps cases will increase in the spring, when the weather will get warmer. Eufalia Negreata, doctor-coordinator at the Chisinau Emergency Service, informed that the number of currently hospitalised mumps patients is 250. On Monday, January 21, alone the Service recorded 57 new cases. Mumps, also known as infectious parotitis, spreads like the common cold, through sneezes and coughs, and from shared surfaces where mucus particles could be left behind and picked up by another person. The incubation period ranges from 2 to 3 weeks. The disease is not usually life threatening, but it can have serious complications like meningitis, myocarditis, and sterility, especially in teenagers. The most common symptoms are the inflammation of the saliva glands, fever and pain from swollen glands. Mumps can be prevented trough MMR vaccination, usually received as two shots at the age of 12 months and 6-7 years.