MUMPS

SYMPTOMS: This disease may herald with a swelling below one or both ears. It is quite painful. The child may have pain while chewing or opening the mouth. He is likely to have had contact with a child having mumps. The swelling is because of the saliva-producing glands (parotid glands) and lasts for about 10 days. The illness often starts with fever, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, and headache to be followed with parotid swelling within a day. But some children may only have swelling of the gland. If the child has had the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine in the past and swelling is noticed below the jawbone rather than the ears, the diagnosis may be different. Let your doctor decide. If the enlargement of the glands below the jawbone is due to throat infection, the doctor may offer the child antibiotics.

TREATMENT: Mumps does not need any treatment, except pain management. Paracetamol and soft foods (fruits, juices, soups, khichdi, curds) are advised.


Complications Of Mumps
Mumps can occasionally get complicated with involvement of the brain, testes and pancreas. A testicular involvement is seen only in adolescents and not in younger children. Consult your doctor if a child with mumps gets acute pain in the abdomen, swelling of the scrotum, or starts behaving abnormally.


Prevention Of Spread Of Mumps
Mumps spreads fast. The patient is infectious from 1 or 2 days before the onset of illness and remains infectious until the parotid swelling disappears.

11 February, 2013