Mumps

What is mumps?

Mumps is a viral infection of the parotid glands. These glands, which make saliva, are found either side of the face below the ears and over the jaw bone. The illness used to be common but is rarer now that immunisation with the MMR vaccine is routine.

Mumps is spread in saliva or in the tiny droplets of fluid when someone coughs or sneezes. People with mumps are infectious from up to seven days before and up to seven days after the glands first start to swell.

Symptoms

Symptoms develop 14 to 21 days after exposure (the incubation period). The illness begins with fever, shivers, tiredness and painful swelling of the parotid glands. One side may be swollen initially but usually both glands are eventually affected.

The swollen glands make it difficult for people to open their mouth, talk, eat and drink. They give the person a similar appearance to that of a hamster, making the infection relatively easy to recognise. Children may complain of earache, difficulty eating and drinking, and, sometimes, abdominal pain. In as many as 30 per cent of cases symptoms are so minimal that the infection goes unnoticed.

It can cause unpleasant and painful complications, especially in older children.

Acute pancreatitis and inflammation of the ovaries (called oophoritis) can occur, and one in four men who catch mumps after puberty develop inflammation of the testicles (orchitis), which is painful and, though it doesn’t make a man sterile, can reduce his fertility.

Complications with mumps may set in about a week after symptoms begin. In one in ten cases there will be signs of meningitis, while about one in 5,000 has encephalitis. Symptoms include headache, neck stiffness, vomiting and dislike of light. Hearing loss may follow mumps but it's usually one-sided and temporary. Most children recover from mumps with no long-lasting problems.

Treatment and recovery

It's important to call your doctor to confirm the diagnosis. Since mumps is a viral infection antibiotics don't help.

Children may be treated at home with pain-reducing paracetamol syrup. Give them plenty of water but avoid fruit juice, which can stimulate the parotid gland to make saliva, which in turn can be painful.

Swelling of the parotid glands increases over two to three days and then subsides as the high temperature starts to fall. Painkillers ease the muscle aches and relieve the pain that comes with the swollen parotid glands.

You should call for urgent medical help if your child remains unwell or develops symptoms of meningitis or encephalitis.

A safe, effective vaccination is available. This is combined with the measles and rubella vaccination and is called MMR.

The first dose is given between the age of 12 and 15 months and a second booster dose between three and five years. It provides lifelong protection.

Concerns about MMR being linked with autism and inflammatory bowel disease saw a fall in the number of children immunised with MMR in the UK.

Consequently, the number of people developing mumps infection has risen dramatically. If enough people are vaccinated, mumps infection and its possible complications may become a thing of the past.