The story behind the mumps outbreaks of 2016-17
In 2016 and 2017, a surge of mumps cases at Boston-area universities prompted researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard to study mumps virus transmission using genomic data, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and local university health services. As the outbreaks unfolded, the teams analyzed mumps virus genomes collected from patients, revealing new links between cases that first appeared unrelated and other details about how the disease was spreading that weren’t apparent from the epidemiological investigation. The teams shared their sequencing data and findings in real time during the outbreaks, with both each other and the broader scientific community, and now report their conclusions in PLOS Biology. Analyzing viral genomes from an outbreak can show how a virus is evolving and being transmitted — data that can help public-health officials slow and stop the spread of disease. “High-resolution genomic data about a virus, gathered from patient samples, allows us to...