The Health Protection Surveillance Centre is warning all students to ensure that they have the MMR vaccine following outbreaks of mumps in a number of third-level colleges.
There have been over 150 cases of mumps among students, so far this year and five were admitted to hospital.
Seven colleges have been affected - the Institutes of Technology in Waterford and Limerick and at Universities in Cork, Limerick, Galway, Maynooth and Dublin City University.
The mumps is a contagious acute viral illness, which until recently has been on the decline.
Complications with the mumps are usually mild but it can cause meningitis and deafness.
In the past there was major concern about the MMR vaccine after a study in 1998 linked it with autism.
That research has only recently being found to be untrue but in the intervening years it led to a major fall off in the number of children availing of the vaccine.
Now around 86% of children are getting the vaccine but health experts say 95% should be covered in order to prevent against a major outbreak.
