PORTLAND (AP) – The University of Southern Maine on Thursday began notifying 426 students that they’re being banned from the Portland and Gorham campuses for failing to meet the latest vaccination requirements for the mumps.

Campus officials were providing student lists to professors and were trying to reach about 50 on-campus residents to make sure they have another place to go, a spokeswoman said.

The 426 students were among about 1,300 full-time or residence hall students on the two campuses who were told to get their vaccinations up to date following an outbreak of the mumps in Maine that included at least one USM student.

The list includes about 20 students who’ve declined vaccinations on religious or philosphical grounds, said spokeswoman Judie O’Malley.

All of those who failed to get their shots will be kept out of classes. But USM doesn’t plan to kick any of them out onto the snowy streets, nor does it expect to flunk students who’ve failed to get vaccinated, O’Malley said.

“The faculty and the provost will work with any and all students so they can successfully complete their semester,” O’Malley said.

The university with more than 10,000 students in Portland, Gorham and Lewiston is acting on recommendations from the Maine Center for Disease Control in Augusta, which wants to make sure all students have had two inoculations.

The vaccination requirements applied only to the Portland and Gorham campuses, where a student was confirmed to have the mumps.

That student has recovered and returned to class, but there have been two other unconfirmed cases involving students since then, O’Malley said.

All told, there have been eight laboratory-confirmed cases of the mumps in Maine, and there are another 35 suspected cases, Dr. Dora Anne Mills, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday.

Most students already received two doses of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, but some had received only one and were required to get a second shot. The only exceptions are students born before 1957 and students for whom the shots pose a medical risk.

Students who receive their first shot are being given a pass allowing them to go to class, but they must return in 28 days for the second shot.

Mumps is a viral infection whose symptoms include fever, headaches, muscle ache and swelling of the salivary glands. Maine’s mumps outbreak is believed to be linked to the Canadian Maritimes, which has been dealing with an outbreak for months.

Health officials believe Maine’s outbreak could be linked to a concert by a Canadian band at a crowded venue in September in Greater Portland. A member of the music group came down with the mumps, and Maine’s first two cases were concertgoers, Mills said.

Since March of this year, Canada has been experiencing an outbreak of mumps. As of mid-November, more than 900 confirmed cases had occurred in 13 provinces, with the outbreak activity centered in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Other than Canada, Maine is the only place in North America that is dealing with the mumps, Mills said.

AP-ES-12-06-07 1200EST