Informative Essay On Mumps

Introduction Preventative medicine is utilized by physicians to keep patients, communities, and the populations healthy.1 It aims to protect and promote health and quality of life and to prevent disease. One component of preventative medicine is encouraging patient immunizations. Vaccination use in disease prevention has been the greatest public health success in the past century.2 Before the development of a mumps vaccine, the disease occurred frequently in the United States impacting both children and adults.3 Vaccinations began in 1967 and there has been over a 99% decrease in U.S. cases of mumps, demonstrating that mumps is largely preventable. Vaccination with live mumps virus is administered in the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) combination …show more content…
On average, the incubation period for mumps is 16 to 18 days but ranges from 12 to 25 days.3 A classic feature of mumps is pain and swelling of the parotid salivary glands. Parotitis, or inflammation of the parotid glands, is usually bilateral but can be unilateral, especially early in disease progression.4 When fully inflamed, the swollen parotid gland may obstruct palpation of the jawbone in front of the ear. Swelling most commonly appears on day two of infection and lasts five to seven days. Parotitis may be preceded by headache, fever, muscle aches, loss of appetite, and general malaise. Additionally, mumps may cause complications in other areas more commonly in adults.3,4 Males may experience orchitis, or testicular swelling, accompanied by pain and testicular atrophy.3,4,5 The orchitis is usually experienced one to two weeks after parotitis onset and is more commonly unilateral.5 It is rare for sterility to occur. Oophoritis, or ovarian inflammation, is very rare.3,4 Additional rare complications include deafness, pancreatitis, meningitis, and encephalitis. Death is extremely