HOBOKEN — Eight students at the Stevens Institute of Technology contracted mumps last week and returned home, according to a statement posted on the Hoboken university's website today.

The university is working with the city and the state health departments and other local, state and Hudson County authorities to treat the cases, the statement said.

"There have been no reports of newly symptomatic cases since the initial cases last week," Maggie Cunning, the university’s director of the student health services, said in the statement.

Mumps is a viral infection that can cause painful swelling of the salivary glands and other symptoms and spreads easily, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The affected students are 18 to 21 years old. The university said all were fully vaccinated.

Although the CDC says it is possible for vaccinated people to contract the virus, serious health complications attributable to the disease, which are rare to begin with, are less likely as a result.

Stevens is nonetheless encouraging students, staff or recent visitors to the campus or people who have been in close contact with a university student or staff person to visit a health-care provider if they have mumps symptoms.

Those include swollen salivary glands, which are between the ear and jaw, fever, muscle aches, tiredness, abdominal pain and loss of appetite, according to the CDC.

About 200 people, most with ties to Ohio State University, have recently been hit by the virus in that state. About one-third, though, showed no symptoms, authorities said.

A few cases were also reported at Fordham University in the Bronx last month.

Stevens has about 2,700 full-time students and 250 full-time faculty members, according to its website.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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