Kerala's mumps outbreak: Everything you need to know...

S Venkateshwari
Kerala's mumps outbreak: Everything you need to know...


With nearly 2,505 cases of the self-limiting viral disease registered in kerala this month, the mumps is rapidly spreading throughout the state. State health officials are particularly concerned about the single-day total of 190 on march 10 and are making every effort to contain its spread. The condition, which is caused by the paramyxovirus, primarily has moderate symptoms, although less than 1% of people may get hearing loss or enlarges in the brain after vaccination.

Mumps can afflict people of any age, but it most frequently strikes youngsters ages 5 to 9. The mumps starts with symptoms including myalgia, headache, malaise, and low-grade fever after an incubation period of about two to four weeks. As the days go by, these symptoms might proceed to unilateral or bilateral swelling of the parotid salivary glands.

The trivalent measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination, the bivalent measles-mumps vaccine, and the monovalent vaccine are the available mumps vaccines, according to the World health Organization. Direct contact or airborne droplets from an infected person's upper respiratory tract can transmit the mumps. Not every virus-infected individual experiences symptoms. Symptoms include fever, headache, exhaustion, sore throat, enlarged, painful salivary glands, and loss of appetite. It takes roughly two weeks to recover from the illness that the MMR vaccine can avoid.

Despite significant containment thanks to the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, outbreaks continue to be documented. Vaccinated individuals are not immune to the disease, however symptoms are still rather minor.

Mumps symptoms

Mumps symptoms are listed by Dr. Neha Rastogi, Consultant in Infectious Diseases at Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram:

PAIN and Swelling in One or Both Parotid Glands (situated directly below the Ear)

High temperature

Headache

Aches in the muscles

Weary

appetite decline

discomfort during swallowing or eating




Find Out More:

#Keralamumps

Related Articles: