This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Mumps

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Mumps is an acute contagious RNA paramyxovirus disease seen mainly in childhood, involving chiefly the salivary glands, most often the parotids, but other tissues may be affected, including the meninges and in postpubertal males the testes (1).

Infection occurs in susceptible children (2) but it is rare in infancy, presumably due to the persistence of maternal antibodies.

Mumps is transmitted via direct contact with infected droplet nuclei or fomites contaminated with infected saliva and possibly urine.

  • purely a disease affecting humans (no animal reservoirs) (1)
  • the virus has a low infectivity rate although some cases are subclinical
  • incubation period is about 18 days (may vary between 14 to 25 days) (3)
  • patients are infectious from 2 days before the onset of symptoms to 9 days afterwards (even asymptomatic patients may be infectious) (1)

Intrauterine infection may develop as a result of infection early in pregnancy.

The peak incidence of mumps in temperate climates is noticed in winter & spring. In tropical climates cases can occur regularly right through the year (1).

Mumps is a notifiable disease in UK (since October 1988) (3).

Reference:


Create an account to add page annotations

Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.

The content herein is provided for informational purposes and does not replace the need to apply professional clinical judgement when diagnosing or treating any medical condition. A licensed medical practitioner should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions.

Connect

Copyright 2024 Oxbridge Solutions Limited, a subsidiary of OmniaMed Communications Limited. All rights reserved. Any distribution or duplication of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited. Oxbridge Solutions receives funding from advertising but maintains editorial independence.