AN outbreak of mumps has struck in Worcestershire - hitting students and teenagers the worst.

The news has prompted widespread concern that it could grow into an epidemic, and hundreds of University College Worcester students have received letters urging them to have the mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) jab.

While rarely fatal, mumps can cause meningitis, swollen, painful testicles that can lead to infertility, deafness, pancreatitis and spontaneous abortion in pregnant women.

Cases had almost disappeared, but in the last year there have been 93 cases - four times more than in 2003. A dozen UCW students have been diagnosed with the disease in that last two-and-a-half months alone.

Dr Alan Tweddell, of the Worcestershire Health Protection Agency, warned that the infection could spread as toddlers' uptake for the jab is just 82 per cent in the county. That's 13 per cent below the recommendation and low enough to spark an epidemic.

The low take-up is thought to be down to parents' unproved fears that MMR could cause autism and the fact that one of the few clinics dispensing single vaccine jabs - the Desumo Clinic - is based in Stanley Road, Worcester.

Mid-Worcestershire Tory MP Peter Luff, whose student daughter Rosie, aged 19, contracted mumps last April, said he was very concerned: "Modern medicine can only save us from disaster if we use it. This is a warning to us that the 'old' diseases can come back to haunt us if we're not careful."

Dr David Brownridge, of Ombersley Road GP surgery, added: "I've seen a case of a teenager with a florid case of the mumps which I have not seen for several years.

"An outbreak affecting young adults is worrying as mumps is a minor illness for children but much more serious later on in life."

But Dr Tweddell said he was not worried because he thought the outbreak could be "overcome".

He explained students and teenagers were susceptible to mumps because many of them were too old to have been vaccinated with MMR, which was only introduced in 1988.

Others had only one dose of the combined vaccination, which provides 90 to 95 per cent protection against the illnesses. The two-dose jab was not introduced until 1996.

"The chances of someone getting infected are related to their chances of coming into contact with a case of mumps and, as young adults socialise a lot, this will increase the chances of this happening," he said.