Health authorities in England are asking young people to ensure that they have had the MMR vaccine, following an increase in mumps cases, reports The Guardian.

Last year there were nearly five times as many cases of mumps as the year before – 5,042 lab-confirmed cases as opposed to 1,066 in 2018, said PHE. The trend is continuing, with 546 new cases last month, compared to 191 in January last year.

Most outbreaks have been in colleges and universities. “Many of the cases in 2019 were seen in the so-called “Wakefield cohorts” – young adults born in the late 1990s and early 2000s who missed out on the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine when they were children,” said PHE in a statement.