Related concepts:

Epidemic parotitis.

Introduction to mumps:

Mumps has been a common disease for centuries. Hippocrates wrote about it almost 2500 years ago. It’s not all that serious an illness. It doesn’t even affect male fertility the way that most people think. So why was a vaccine developed? Well, about 1/3 of the men who get mumps develop exquisite pain and swelling in one or both testicles, which then shrivel up and remain permanently atrophied. Perhaps that had something to do with it! Less well known, mumps can affect the ovaries as well.

What is mumps?

Mumps is a virus that classically causes painful swelling of the parotid glands (saliva glands). Before the vaccine became available, it was an extremely common childhood infection.

When adults or adolescents get mumps the infection is more serious, often with orchitis (inflammation of the testicles).

Who gets mumps?

Mumps used to be predominately a disease of elementary school-aged children. It was also a significant problem in the military. The biggest known epidemic in history occurred during World War II.

Mumps was around all of the time, especially during the winter and spring. Every 4 years or so, there was a major epidemic.

When the vaccine became widespread in 1968, there were more than 152,000 reported cases of mumps in the US. By 1997, the number had dropped to about 680 cases per year (while the population had grown significantly).

Today the demographics of mumps have changed. In the US, the seasonal variation has disappeared. And now mumps is associated more with college campuses than with elementary schools.

Since the vaccine, the age curve for mumps has shifted. It is no longer primarily a disease of 5 to 9 year olds, but is more frequently a disease of young adults than ever before – the very ones who have the most to lose!

Is this a failure of vaccine policy?

You decide.

Before the vaccine, only about 15 per cent of mumps occurred after puberty. In 1968, more than 22,000 of the reported mumps cases were adult cases. Today, about half of the 680 cases are in adolescents and adults (more or less than half in different years). Even if all of the remaining cases were in adults, this would still represent a 97 percent decrease in mumps in adults since the vaccine was introduced.

What are the symptoms of mumps?

The classic symptom of mumps is painful swelling of one or both parotid glands, often obscuring the angle of the jaw. The pain is especially intense when tasting sour liquids (lemon juice and vinegar have provoked many a muffled scream).

People with mumps often mumble (and medical historians argue over whether the name mumps comes from an old word for ‘lump’ or an old word for ‘mumble’. I disagree with everyone. As a fan of wordplay, I suspect that the clever namers had both in mind.)

(Note: other viruses such as influenza, parainfluenza, HIV, CMV, and coxsackieviruses can also cause parotitis. So can staph infections.)

Many people with mumps have no symptoms. Some have both the classic symptoms and complications. Some have only the complications.