ABOUT MUMPS

While mumps causes mild symptoms in most people, it can lead to complications, including miscarriage in women. It can also result in serious illness and complications in people who have weakened immune systems or have had transplants or chemotherapy.

The disease often causes swelling in the glands around the face and can result in severe discomfort and pain. In one in 10 cases, it can lead to meningitis and one in every 6000 people can get encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, and one in every 100 of them will die from the condition. Mumps can also cause nerve deafness in one in 15,000 people.

People affected after puberty can suffer problems that in rare cases can affect fertility. Around one in every five males with mumps experiences inflammation of the testicles, while one in 20 females gets ovarian inflammation.

Mumps is spread through the air by breathing, sneezing or coughing, or through contact with infected saliva, such as by kissing or sharing food and drink. Symptoms include fever, headache, a sore throat and tiredness.

It can take 12-25 days from catching mumps to becoming sick.

You’ll be infectious for a week before swelling appears, until five days after. • If you’d like to talk to someone about mumps, call the Immunisation Advisory Centre on the free helpline 0800 IMMUNE (0800 466 863) or Healthline on 0800 611 116.