Mumps
Mumps is spread from person to person through contact with respiratory secretions, such as saliva from an infected person. When an infected person coughs or sneezes, the droplets aerosolize and can enter the eyes, nose, or mouth of another person. Mumps can also be spread by sharing eating utensils or cups. The virus can also survive on surfaces and then be spread after contact in a similar manner. A person infected with mumps is contagious from approximately seven days before the onset of symptoms until about eight days after symptoms start. The incubation period (time until symptoms begin) can be from 12–25 days, but is typically 16–18 days. 20-40 percent of persons infected with the mumps virus do not show symptoms, so it is possible to be infected and spread the virus without knowing it.
Melanie's Marvelous Measles
Independent data shows that measles causes the most vaccine-preventable deaths of any disease, resulting in about 96,000 deaths in 2013, and the vaccine is 97% effective after two shots. Measles is highly contagious – before immunization in the United States there were between three and four million cases annually – and the fatality rate is approximately 0.2% of those infected. Most of those who are infected and who die are less than five years old.