27.03.2024
Mumps disease
For the Prelims:About mumps,Important points
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Why in the news?
According to recent reports, mumps has been spreading like wildfire in Kerala for the last few months.
Important points:
- Sporadic cases started being reported in Malappuram and Kozhikode districts of Kerala around November 2023, since then it has also spread to Palakkad and Thrissur.
- Not just Kerala, a resurgence in cases is also being reported from many states including Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
- Despite being a preventable disease, mumps has never been part of the Universal Immunization Program (UIP) because the disease has no mortality rate.
- According to the World Health Organization (WHO), vaccination strategies targeting mumps control should be closely integrated with existing measles elimination and rubella control.
About mumps:
- Mumps is a self-limited, airborne viral disease, an acute viral infection that historically affects children.
- It most commonly presents in children and adolescents as fever and headache, accompanied by painful swelling of the salivary glands (parotid glands) on either side of the face.
- There is no specific treatment and the patient recovers in about two weeks with rest and symptomatic management.
- Because only about half of infected children develop classical disease and about 30% have no symptoms, most cases go unreported.
- The other important complication posed by mumps is the effect of the virus on the gonads (reproductive glands) in both men and women.
- In men, it presents a rare but distinct possibility of long-term infertility or a decline in sperm count.
- Health officials believe that creating public awareness about this disease and the importance of isolation is the most important tool in reducing the transmission of this disease.
- Transmission of this disease actually begins before symptoms appear and it is necessary to isolate the patient for three full weeks to limit the spread of the disease.
Source: Times of India