Mumps Symptoms

Mumps is an exceedingly communicable virus-caused infection generally affecting kids. When an individual contracts mumps, he/she would generally have developed immunity from any supplementary infection.

Even since the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine has been offered since the eighties as one of the many infancy vaccines, mumps cases have dropped notably, with below a hundred cases cited since the mid-nineties. Though there has been a rise in the occurrences of mumps cases & six years ago mumps pandemic lead to more than forty-three thousand cases in Britain – majority of them noted among teens & youngsters.

It is believed that the latest mumps outbreak has been since individuals in this age band did not receive the MMR vaccine, however, additionally they did not have an innate immunity against mumps since they hadn’t earlier contracted the infection. Another deciding factor is that several parents have opted not to get their kid immunized with the MMR vaccination.

The mumps virus gains entry inside the body either nasally or via throat and one might start experiencing symptoms due to viral multiplication & spreading to the brain & membranes casing it, reaching the glands (generally salivary), pancreatic, ovarian, testicular & other regions of the body.

Mumps symptoms generally arise amid fourteen to twenty-five days subsequent to have contracted the mumps virus infection (the incubatory phase), with the avg. incubatory phase being about seventeen days.

The trademark symptom of this infection is swollen parotid glands (saliva-manufacturing glands) situated on either or duo sides of the facial area just underneath the ears, giving the individual an idiosyncratic hamster-face look. The duo glands swell up as a result of the mumps infection, though in small number of situations, solely a single gland swells up and causing supplementary mumps symptoms like sensing pains, soreness in the swelling and pains when one tries to swallow &/or problems trying to swallow.

Other mumps symptoms experienced comprise of headaches, earaches, joint aches, feeling nauseous, puking, oral dryness, slight stomach pains, weariness, lost craving for food & a hundred degree Fahrenheit or more fever.

Nearly 1/3rd individuals that contract mumps are asymptomatic, particularly infants below two years of age. Infected individuals are capable of spreading the virus one to two days prior to them becoming symptomatic & for five to nine days following symptoms having started.

When to call the doctor

One must be getting in touch with a general practitioner whenever one doubts that oneself or those around have contracted mumps. Even though the infection isn’t generally grave, mumps symptoms bear striking resemblance to other rather grave forms of infection like streptococcus tonsillitis, mononucleosis. It is thus always prudent to seek advice of your doctor for confirming or excluding mumps identification.