Childhood immunizations in the United States
Mumps is a contagious disease caused by the virus by the same name. Since most people in the United States have been vaccinated, mumps is now a rare disease in this country. Currently there are no specific treatments for mumps.
Mumps is spread person to person by droplets of saliva or mucus from the mouth, nose or throat of an infected person. This is done through coughing, sneezing, talking, and coming into contact with contaminate items. Transmission likely occurs before the salivary glands swell an up to 5 days after the swelling begins.
Mumps
Mumps is usually preceded by a set of prodromal symptoms including low-grade fever, headache, and malaise. This is followed by progressive swelling of one or both parotid glands. Parotid gland swelling usually lasts about one week. Other symptoms of mumps can include dry mouth, sore face and/or ears and some patients find it difficult to talk. A vaccine has been available since the 1960s.The mumps virus is an enveloped single-stranded, linear negative-sense RNA virus of the genus "Rubulavirus" and family "Paramyxovirus". The genome consists of 15,384 bases encoding nine proteins. Proteins involved in viral replication are the nucleoprotein, phosphoprotein, and polymerase protein while the genomic RNA forms the ribonucleocapsid. Humans are the only natural host for the virus.