TEENAGERS who have still not been vaccinated against mumps are being urged to get the jab as soon as possible to stop the spread of the illness.

Last Friday's Bury Times revealed how mumps had reached epidemic proportions in the borough with 26 cases of the illness in the last three weeks, taking the total this year to 50.

Although only one more case of mumps has been reported since last week, health chiefs are warning teenagers not to be complacent.

Dr Peter Elton, director of public health for Bury Primary Care Trust, said: "We need to see what happens when schools and colleges go back after the Easter break.

"It is still important that teenagers who attend colleges and other places where there have been mumps, go to get their MMR vaccine from their GP, if they have not previously had two doses of the vaccine."

Cases in the borough averaged one per week for the first nine weeks of the year, but have since spiralled, with teenagers seemingly suffering the full brunt of the countrywide epidemic.

A significant proportion of the reported cases affected students at Bury College and Holy Cross College.

Many are too old to have been offered the MMR vaccine routinely when they were toddlers, as the vaccination was not introduced until 1988.

Dr Elton said: "We cannot be sure that the epidemic is over. However, the more teenagers that have the vaccine, the quicker the epidemic will pass."

The best known symptoms of the virus are swelling of part or both sides of the face or below and just in front of the ear which lasts for about three to four days.

But those who have contracted the illness are contagious for seven days before symptoms appear and for about ten days afterwards. Mumps can only be contracted once.