Mumps
Posted by Babies - 14/01/09 at 07:01 amMumps
Mumps is a quite common disease. It may infect children as well as the grown ups. It is a viral disease and it is infectious. It is contagious in nature. MMR vaccine is used for protection against mumps. Mumps generally occurs once in a life time. The disease has a life cycle of about two to three weeks.
A person infected requires two to three weeks of time to recover completely if he/she does not develop any complication. Mumps is generally accompanied by high fever of about 103 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit or 39.5 degree Centigrade. It results to loss of appetite, swelling of the parotid glands.
The parotid glands are situated in between the ears and the jaws. It becomes very painful. After a week of swelling and pain in the parotid glands, the other symptoms like stiffness of neck, headache, drowsiness, vomiting etc make their appearance. The swelling of the glands may be uneven in one or both side of the face. It appears as if the child is carrying food in the mouth.
The child looks like a hamster with cheeks storing food. Sometimes, though this is very rare, mumps can cause inflammation in the brain thus leading to encephalitis and even to meningitis. Many people may have mumps which is so mild that they might not even understand that they have been infected.
As mumps is a viral disease therefore it antibiotics cannot cure it. Generally paracetamol or ibrufen is used to cure mumps. People affected with mumps should drink lots of fluid like fruit juices, but acidic fruit juices should be avoided.
