HUNDREDS of students have been queuing up to be vaccinated after a mumps outbreak in the region.

The mass vaccination drive is under way on three North-East university campuses after what has been described as a "sharp increase" in cases.

Health officials suspect that the majority of new cases are among university students.

As a result, clinics have been organised at Newcastle, Northumbria and Durham universities.

The universities, which have more than 40,000 students between them, have all reported recent mumps cases.

Mumps has also broken out at Teesdale Comprehensive School, in Barnard Castle, County Durham, where 13 teenagers have been affected.

Students are particularly vulnerable to mumps for a number of reasons.

The combined mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) vaccine was not introduced until 1988, so many older teenagers and students are potentially at risk.

Students also tend to live fairly close to each other, which makes it easier for airborne diseases, such as mumps to spread.

The sudden increase in the North-East follows a wave of mumps cases in other university centres, including Leeds, Manchester and Nottingham.

Latest regional figures show that in the week beginning November 12, 61 cases of mumps were reported to the Health Protection Agency.

Dr Kirsty Foster, consultant in public health at Newcastle Primary Care Trust, said: "The trust and the Health Protection Agency have teamed up with both the University of Newcastle and Northumbria University to offer MMR vaccinations to undergraduate students under the age of 30.

"This follows a sharp increase last week in the number of young people diagnosed with mumps by their GP. We believe the majority of these people are students."

So far, this year's regional figure for mumps is lower than last year, when there were 544 cases.

Ken Griffiths, head of the sixth form at Teesdale Comprehensive, said: "Most of our cases have been in the upper sixth and have involved 17 and 18-year-olds, although we have had students as young as 14 or 15 affected."

No more than five or six pupils have been affected at any one time and most pupils had recovered and had returned to school, said Mr Griffiths.

Pupils have been given information about symptoms, he added.

Teesside and Sunderland universities have no current mumps cases.

York University ran a precautionary MMR vaccination clinic last week, but said there were no reported cases.