You can get mumps by entering a room that an infected person left up to 2 hours earlier. Outbreaks are most common in groups of people who spend a lot of time together and have physical contact. The vaccine is the only way to fully fend off the mumps. Vaccines, such as the MMR vaccine, are the most effective forms of protection from diseases like mumps.
High vaccination rates have made mumps much less common. When the majority of people are vaccinated, outbreaks are smaller, shorter, and less severe. The MMR vaccine is your best protection against mumps because there is no cure — only medicines that can help you feel better while your immune system tries to fight off the virus. There are some people who should not get the MMR vaccine because they are at a higher risk for complications from the vaccination.
These people include those who:. Getting the vaccine is much less dangerous than getting mumps. In addition to getting the vaccine, knowing the signs of mumps can help keep you and the people around you safe.
If you suspect that you or someone in your family may have mumps, contact your primary care provider right away. Get information on a variety of health conditions, disease prevention, and our services and programs.
It's advice from our physicians delivered to you on your time. Many children have no or very mild symptoms. The following are the most common symptoms of mumps that may be seen in both adults and children:. Discomfort in the salivary glands in the front of the neck or the parotid glands immediately in front of the ears.
Either of these glands may become swollen and tender. The symptoms of mumps may look like other conditions or medical problems. Always talk with your healthcare provider for a diagnosis. Meningitis or encephalitis. Inflammation of the membrane that covers the brain and spinal cord or inflammation of the brain.
Treatment is usually limited to medicines for pain and plenty of fluids. Sometimes bed rest is necessary the first few days. According to the CDC, adults should stay home from work for 5 days after glands begin to swell. Children should stay out of school until symptoms have lessened. Both adults and children with mumps symptoms should reduce contact with other people who live in their homes.
Available at merckmanuals. Accessed June Mumps is a viral illness caused by a paramyxovirus, a member of the Rubulavirus family. The average incubation period for mumps is 16 to 18 days, with a range of 12 to 25 days.
To learn more about how to promptly recognize and diagnose mumps, check out this Mumps Clinical Diagnosis Fact Sheet pdf icon [2 pages]. Mumps usually involves pain, tenderness, and swelling in one or both parotid salivary glands cheek and jaw area. Swelling usually peaks in 1 to 3 days and then subsides during the next week.
The swollen tissue pushes the angle of the ear up and out. As swelling worsens, the angle of the jawbone below the ear is no longer visible.
Often, the jawbone cannot be felt because of swelling of the parotid. Nonspecific prodromal symptoms may precede parotitis by several days, including low-grade fever which may last 3 to 4 days, myalgia, anorexia, malaise, and headache.
Parotitis usually lasts on average 5 days and most cases resolve after 10 days. Mumps infection may also present only with nonspecific or primarily respiratory symptoms, or may be asymptomatic.
Reinfection after natural infection and recurrent parotitis, when parotitis on one side resolves but is followed weeks to months later by parotitis on the other side, can also occur in mumps patients.
Mumps can occur in a person who is fully vaccinated, but vaccinated patients are less likely to present severe symptoms or complications than under- or unvaccinated cases.
Mumps should be suspected in all patients with parotitis or mumps complications, regardless of age, vaccination status, and travel history. Mumps infection is most often confused with swelling of the lymph nodes of the neck. Lymph node swelling can be differentiated by the well-defined borders of the lymph nodes, their location behind the angle of the jawbone, and lack of the ear protrusion or obscuring of the angle of the jaw, which are characteristics of mumps.
While not a common symptom of flu, swelling of their salivary glands parotitis has been reported in persons with laboratory-confirmed influenza infections.
Before the U. The disease caused complications, such as permanent deafness in children, and occasionally, encephalitis, which could rarely result in death. However, starting in there has been an increase in mumps cases with several peak years. From year to year, the number of mumps cases can range from roughly a couple hundred to a several thousand, with majority of cases and outbreaks occurring among people who are fully vaccinated and in close-contact or congregate settings.
The mumps virus replicates in the upper respiratory tract and is transmitted person to person through direct contact with saliva or respiratory droplets of a person infected with mumps.
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