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.
Social history of viruses
Other, more ancient, viruses have been less of a threat. Herpes viruses first infected the ancestors of modern humans over 80 million years ago. Humans have developed a tolerance to these viruses, and most are infected with at least one species. Records of these milder virus infections are rare, but it is likely that early hominids suffered from colds, influenza and diarrhoea caused by viruses just as humans do today. More recently evolved viruses cause epidemics and pandemics – and it is these that history records. The influenza virus is one that seems to have crossed the species barrier from pigs to ducks and water fowl and hence to humans. It is possible that a fatal plague in the Middle East at the time of the late 18th Dynasty was associated with this transmission at Amarna.