childhood diseases -
mumps

Mumps – the second M in MMR

What is mumps?

Mumps is a common viral infection that mainly affects school-aged children. The virus is spread in the air, and symptoms appear two to three weeks after your child is first exposed to mumps. It may start with a fever, a headache or vomiting, and then the mumps trademark: your child’s salivary glands in his neck will swell. A gland on one side of his face often swells up before the other side, and sometimes only one side will be affected. The symptoms usually vanish in three days, but your child will remain infectious until the swelling completely disappears.

Complete recovery from mumps is the norm, and if your child has had mumps he will then have lifelong immunity from the disease.

What are the dangers if my child catches mumps?

The mumps infection may spread to other salivary glands, and also to the pancreas, to the brain (where it can cause aseptic meningitis) and to the testicles. It is not unusual to spread to the testicles, and is rarely serious except in adult men. In most cases, everything returns to normal within a week. It very rarely causes infertility because in the unlikely event of a testicle being affected and sterility resulting, the other testicle can still work effectively.

Meningitis after natural mumps has been reported to occur at a rate of approximately 1 in 400 cases. Mumps is a common cause of viral meningitis in the under 15s. Aseptic and viral meningitis are both usually mild, and run their course untreated.

1 in 25 children with mumps will get some form of hearing impairment, although this is most often temporary.

Death from mumps is rare, and occurs for the most part in adult cases.

What is the treatment for mumps?

Your doctor should be called to confirm that your child has mumps. He should then be kept at home for about ten days, but does not have to stay in bed. He’ll feel like plenty of cool drinks and if you wrap a hot water bottle and rest it by his sore face, he’ll find it soothing.