Additional doses of mumps vaccine have arrived in the country and are ready to be used in the ongoing nationwide immunization campaign. The consignment consists of 100,000 shots, donated to Moldova by the American pharmaceutical company Merck through the United States Fund for UNICEF, Info-Prim Neo reports. The so-called MMR vaccine donated by Merck tackles three diseases simultaneously – mumps, measles and congenital rubella. The preparation has been accredited by the Moldovan Ministry of Health, upon the recommendation of the World Health Organization. The shots have already been stored at the National Center for Preventive Medicine and will be mainly used to immunize children born in the period from 1989 to 1994, UNICEF said in a press release. A month ago, UNICEF Moldova helped to bring into the country another consignment 210,000 doses of vaccine against mumps, bought by the World Bank. The procurement of the vaccine was possible after the Moldovan Government made an appeal for help to international organizations to find 600,000 vaccines to stop the epidemic. The joint efforts started to produce the desired effect – the incidence of mumps has fallen dramatically. According to latest statistics offered by the National Center for Preventive Medicine, last week there were registered 1,470 cases of mumps across the country, compared to 2,351 cases a week before. The spread of the disease has been reduced in the cities of Chisinau, the worst affected, Balti and Ungheni. According to the Ministry of Health, mumps has struck some 25,000 people from the beginning of the year. Children and youth aged 14-24 have been the most vulnerable to the disease. 80 percent of them caught the disease in schools and universities.