Mumps was a common childhood illness – that was until vaccination against it was launched in the late 1980s.
Now, on the whole, this is relatively rare.
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But there are still sporadic outbreaks in the UK, usually occurring every three to four years among unvaccinated groups.
A mumps epidemic is expected to hit Britain soon, and teenagers and young adults are most at risk, experts have warned.
The viral condition can be identified by painful swellings of the salivary glands, especially the parotid glands.
This gives a person with mumps a distinctive “hamster face” appearance.
But the face is not the only part of the body that can swell. In rare cases, the testicles, pancreas, brain and ovaries can also swell.
With cases expected to rise – this winter or the next – knowing some of the symptoms could be life-saving.
Measles symptoms usually begin to appear about 12 days after infection.
It can include:
- Swollen parotid glands (hamster face) – this may make it difficult to speak and chew
- headache
- Joint pain
- Feeling sick
- Dry mouth
- Mild abdominal pain
- Feeling tired
- Anorexia
- High temperature
In about one in six cases, mumps causes no noticeable symptoms, according to the NHS.
There is no cure for mumps, which tends to affect teenagers and children, and symptoms should pass within a week or two.
The infection can spread in the same way as colds and flu, with infected droplets of saliva passed from person to person.
NHS guidelines state to 'stay at home' for five days after symptoms are first detected.
Complications
Mumps is usually mild in children, but can lead to serious complications in unvaccinated young people.
This group, often referred to as the “Wakefield group,” was affected by the vaccine-induced autism scare in the 1990s, which has led to a decline in MMR vaccinations among people now aged 18 to 26 years.
In adults, mumps can lead to swelling of the testicles, which is associated with infertility.
Professor Paul Hunter, a medical expert at the University of East Anglia, told The Sun: “You don't want to get mumps before you start trying to have children and then find out it leaves you infertile.”
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Just under half of males who develop mumps-associated orchitis notice some shrinkage of their testicles.
One in 10 men has a low sperm count, which can cause infertility.
Mumps can also cause swelling of the ovaries, known as oophoritis, which is painful but does not usually lead to infertility.
Another risk is the possibility of viral meningitis, where the virus spreads to the outer areas of the brain.
It occurs in one in four cases of mumps and comes with symptoms such as sensitivity to light, neck stiffness and headache.
But unlike bacterial meningitis, it is not usually considered life-threatening, although it is still important to report symptoms.
In some cases, meningitis can lead to encephalitis, a rare but serious complication.
What vaccines should you or your child get at each age?
Eight weeks
- 6 in 1 vaccine
- Rotavirus vaccine
- MenB vaccine
12 weeks
- 6-in-1 vaccine (second dose)
- Pneumococcal vaccine
- Rotavirus vaccine (second dose)
16 weeks
- 6-in-1 vaccine (third dose)
- MenB vaccine (second dose)
One year
- Hib/MenC vaccine (first dose)
- MMR vaccine (first dose)
- Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (second dose)
- MenB vaccine (third dose)
From two to 15 years
- Children's influenza vaccine (every year until children finish year 11 of secondary school)
Three years and four months
- MMR vaccine (second dose)
- 4-in-1 booster vaccine for preschoolers
From 12 to 13 years
14 years old
- 3-in-1 booster vaccine for teens
- MenACWY vaccine
65 years old
- Flu vaccine (given every year after age 65)
- Pneumococcal vaccine
- Shingles vaccine (if you turn 65 on or after September 1, 2023)
70 to 79 years
Source: NHS
Encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, is a potentially fatal condition that requires admission to intensive care.
This only occurs in about one in 1,000 people who get viral meningitis from mumps
The infection can affect your ears and lead to temporary deafness.
This happens in about 1 in 25 cases, and will always be in about 1 in 20,000 cases.
It can also lead to acute pancreatitis, a serious condition that occurs when the pancreas becomes inflamed or swollen.
Although pancreatitis associated with mumps is usually mild, you may be admitted to hospital so your body's functions can be supported while your pancreas recovers.
In the past, it was thought that mumps could cause miscarriage if contracted in the first trimester of pregnancy.
There is not much evidence to support this, but the NHS advises pregnant women to avoid close contact with people with active mumps infection and to contact their GP if they have been in contact with someone with the virus.
“Just a matter of time”
Mumps is prevented by the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine, which also protects against measles and rubella.
But footfall has fallen to its lowest level in 15 years, causing a surge in measles cases this year.
There were only 36 reports of mumps last year compared to 5,718 in 2019 and 3,738 in 2020, so doctors say a surge could be recorded this winter.
Dr Andre Charlet, of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), told The Sun: “Cases are so low at the moment that they are bound to come back – perhaps this winter or the next.”
“We will likely see a sudden spike in cases, similar to the measles outbreak we saw last year.”
“At this point, it's just a matter of time before the UK sees a rise in mumps cases,” Dr. Susan Haney, a medical epidemiologist and vaccine expert from Amsterdam, told The Sun at the ESCAIDE conference in Stockholm.
Adolescents and young adults are currently considered the most vulnerable to mumps infection due to their close contact and the fact that a large portion of that group remains unimmunized.
