You have a headache, your throat hurts and your neck looks as if you are hiding enough acorns to last a whole winter. You have the mumps and it is usually preventable.

According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, as of May 15 the number of confirmed and suspected cases of the mumps was at 1765. The median age for those with the virus is 22 years, with those ages 18 to 22 making up a majority of all cases.

At Iowa State, if a student is living in university housing, he or she is required to have a measles, mumps and rubella shot.

“We require our student residents to have two MMR shots before they can attend Iowa State. If they do not provide documentation of their shots, we put a hold on their registration,” said Penni McKinley, program coordinator for Thielen Student Health Center.

Iowa State had a mumps vaccine clinic on May 5, but it did not have a very big response.

“We only had 13 people come in for mumps shots,” McKinley said. “Story County had a clinic, as well, and we are waiting for them to let us know how many got a shot.”

Only four ISU students were diagnosed with the mumps. It is suspected that these students may have come in contact with the virus in the eastern part of Iowa, where the outbreak started and most cases have been identified.

“The Iowa Department of Public Health has found that Dubuque is where it started, and they have had over 400 cases in that county alone” McKinley said. “College students are a very mobile age group and 18 to 22 year olds make up most of the cases.”

“They might have traveled though an infected area and carried it along with them to their destination.”

According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, the number of diagnosed cases has peaked and last week only eight new cases were confirmed.

McKinley said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has launched an investigation as to why Iowa has had such an amazingly high number of cases this year.

“We have – on an average – five cases of the mumps a year and this year we have had 1500. No one is really sure what is different about this year,” McKinley said. “It could be a different strain of the virus, an issue with people not getting vaccinated or the vaccine not protecting people fully. This is really an enigma that the state Department of Health and the CDC are trying to figure out. Why here and why now?”

Both McKinley and the CDC Web site state the most important part of preventing the mumps is to get a vaccination.

McKinley said judging from students’ response to the clinics, it is hard to get them to take the mumps seriously.

“I had my two shots already. Since I lived in the dorms I had to,” said recent ISU graduate Ian Hampson.

“I also think that it is a discretionary decision just like getting a flu shot. If a person is willing to risk getting it, that is their decision.”

According to WebMD.com, the mumps virus enters the body through the nose and throat. Symptoms start as the virus multiplies and spreads to the brain, salivary glands, pancreas, testicles or ovaries and other areas of the body.

Symptoms usually last 10 days and may include a fever, intense headache, sore throat, poor appetite and vomiting.

Tiredness along with aching muscles and joints are classic mumps symptoms, as are swollen cheeks between the ear and the jaw.