Useful For

Mumps, a paramyxovirus, causes a communicable, selflimiting disease transmitted by airborne droplets. The incubation period averages from 16 to 18 days (1). Although 30 to 40% of mumps cases remain asymptomatic, 60 to 70% have symptoms including the painful enlargement of the salivary glands and, testicular pain (males) and lower abdominal pain (females) (2, 3). Primarily a disease of children aged 4 to 15, mumps is also the most common cause of aseptic meningitis in childhood (2). Widespread use of a vaccine with attenuated mumps virus has drastically reduced the number of mumps cases, though isolated outbreaks persist. The detection of IgG antibody to mumps can be used to show immunity and detect seroconversion. The diagnosis of mumps can be made by virus isolation and identification, or by serological testing. Mumps virus can be isolated from saliva, the pharynx, or urine and, in the case of aseptic meningitis, the cerebrospinal fluid of a patient (2). Obtaining a specimen early is important since virus titer is highest initially in the course of the disease (1).

Sources available fromt the package insert