Public health officials have revealed on Monday that a mumps outbreak in central Ohio has affected more than 200 people. As of now, a total of 212 cases of the contagious viral illness have been confirmed. Of confirmed cases, 132 have been linked to Ohio State University, including 96 students and 13 staff members.

Infected people are in the age group of nine months to 70 years. According to local health agencies, the cases started to appear from early January to late last week.

Usual symptoms of mumps are fever, fatigue and body aches. Medical experts advice infected people to take rest at home and cover their mouths and noses while coughing and sneezing.

Residents of the region have been urged by health officials to ensure they have been inoculated with two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

Marion County has reported a first probable case since the outbreak has happened in central Ohio. Gwen Janeczek, Marion Public Health nursing director said that she does not believe that the Marion County case is linked to the OSU outbreak. Test results for the confirmation have been sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It was the end of March when the local case was reported for a school-age student who attends an out-of-county school. Marion Public Health sent letters to parents of the infected student that the child may be excluded temporarily from that school in a bid to stop spread of the disease.

The parents of the infected child signed waivers to opt out MMR vaccinations for measles, mumps and rubella and that is why they were reminded by Marion Public Health that any confirmation of a mumps case in a public school may have the child to face a temporarily exclusion from the school to prevent others from contracting the disease.

The letters are just to bring it back to their attention. "It's not a threat. They just need to be reminded that's protocol in the event of an outbreak or a case at the school", said Janeczek,