What are the symptoms of mumps

Mumps is a serious viral disease, which is popularly called "mumps" or "mumps". Human susceptibility to the causative agent of the disease is very high, especially in children aged 3 to 7 years, and in elderly people, and only a sick person can be the source of paramyxovirus. The virus is transmitted by airborne droplets, falling on the nasopharyngeal mucosa.

But the transmission of the disease by household means, through objects used by the sick person, is also not excluded. A person becomes contagious already 1-2 days before the first signs of the disease appear, so it is often problematic to protect others from infection with mumps. After the disease has manifested itself, you can become infected from the sick person for another 5 days.

Symptoms

The disease is characterized by a rather pronounced seasonality. The greatest number of cases is registered in the first half of spring, and boys get sick with mumps almost twice as often as girls. However, once having been ill with mumps, a person becomes immune to this disease, he is guaranteed immunity from mumps for the rest of his life.

Mumps has an incubation period that lasts from 11 to 23 days. Most often it is 15-19 days. It is difficult to clearly determine when the disease begins due to the practical absence of obvious signs in the early days. Nevertheless, it does not hurt to know what initial symptoms of mumps can help indicate a flaring disease.

In some cases, a couple of days before the obvious manifestation of the disease, patients noted headaches, aching joints, muscle pains, chills and dry mouth. Such symptoms on the eve of the disease are more characteristic of mumps in adults than for beginning mumps in children, but most often the onset of the disease is accompanied by a sharp jump in temperature to 39 degrees and above, chills, headache and severe weakness.

The temperature can stay high for about a week, but there have been isolated cases of the disease when it proceeded without fever. However, the main, and at the same time the most noticeable sign of mumps disease appears approximately on the second day after the temperature rises. The patient begins to complain of pain in the neck, it is especially pronounced in the dimples behind the ears. This is how inflammation of the parotid salivary glands begins. Also, the process of inflammation can cover the submandibular and sublingual glands.

The neck of the patient in the area where these glands are located is very swollen, and pressure on the swelling is always painful. The patient's face, due to such otochnost, acquires a pear-shaped shape, and the earlobe rises. With the development of the disease, the inflammatory process covers the glands on the opposite side of the neck, although it is not too rare that the inflammation of the glands remains one-sided.

After the fifth day, the swelling begins to subside, but the contours of the face return to normal no earlier than on the tenth day from the onset of the disease. At the same time, the body temperature and the general condition of the patient are also practically normal.

Sick with mumps complain of pain in the area of inflammation, aggravated in the evening and at night. Sometimes there is noise and pain in the ears. Within about 5 days, the otk can only increase, capturing one or both cheeks. As a result, the patient's face really becomes like the snout of the animal that gave the name to this disease.

In cases of a particularly severe course of the disease, it is difficult and painful for the patient to chew food. Painful sensations persist for 3-4 days, and then gradually begin to recede. In the same period, swelling begins to gradually disappear in the projection of the inflamed glands, although sometimes it can last up to two weeks or even longer. But such cases are more typical for adult patients. In children, fatherhood goes away faster.

Mumps

Most people with mumps are treated at home, on an outpatient basis. Hospitalization is subject only to those patients who, with the course of the disease, have developed complications or during epidemics. At home, the patient must be isolated for at least 9 days. In children's educational institutions visited by a sick child, a three-week quarantine is established.

There is no effective treatment for mumps as such. The risk of developing complications largely depends on how to treat mumps. Usually therapy is aimed at preventing their development, especially in children, as well as at the possible relief of symptoms. The patient must remain in bed for at least 10 days. In addition, he is recommended a dairy-vegetarian diet, the observance of which will make it possible to minimize the risks of developing pancreatitis.

Also, with mumps in adults and children, overeating should not be allowed. They also limit the consumption of fats and simple carbohydrates (bread from higher grades of flour and pasta).In addition, avoiding fried, spicy, as well as various sauces, marinades and pickles for the duration of the illness will help reduce the risk of pancreatitis in mumps.

In especially severe cases, when it is painful for the patient to chew, it is very desirable to pre-grind the cooked food in order to reduce the pain during chewing as much as possible. Doctors also recommend a plentiful warm drink for mumps. It can be freshly prepared fruit drinks, a decoction of rose hips, or ordinary, not too strong tea.

During the period when the patient's temperature is very high, he is prescribed the usual antipyretic and anti-inflammatory drugs (Nurofen, Panadol, Ibuprofen or Paracetamol). The attending physician may prescribe agents that prevent the development of allergic reactions in the patient (Suprastin or Claritin). In addition, for general strengthening of the body, the patient can take multivitamins.

In cases where the disease is particularly difficult to tolerate and there is a pronounced intoxication of the body, the attending physician may prescribe detoxification therapy intravenously (saline, glucose solution 5% concentration), but such a procedure should be carried out in a hospital.

Possible complications

The most frequent entry of paramyxovirus into the blood causes damage to the glandular organs, such as the pancreas, testicles in boys and ovaries in girls. When the pancreas is affected, pancreatitis occurs, testicular damage can cause orchitis (inflammation of the testicles) in boys. Usually this inflammation is unilateral. At the same time, the temperature of the scrotum rises, one side e noticeably increases in size and becomes especially sensitive. Less commonly, a similar complication can develop in adult men.

In adult women or girls, paramyxovirus can cause inflammation of the ovaries with oophoritis.

The most severe complications of mumps were observed in adult men - the development of priapism (involuntary prolonged and painful erection, not associated with sexual arousal). In addition, infertility can develop in patients of both sexes due to complications of mumps.

The penetration of paramyxovirus into the brain can cause encephalitis or meningitis. Both diseases are extremely dangerous and require immediate and serious treatment. There are also cases when, due to an illness, patients partially or completely lost their hearing due to otitis media that developed after inflammation of the parotid salivary glands.

Prevention

Mumps is often referred to as a controlled infection. This is due to the fact that, thanks to the vaccination of children that started in the 60s of the last century, the number of people who get sick with mumps has significantly decreased. All children who have reached the age of one year are vaccinated against mumps. In this case, a complex vaccine, the so-called MMR (measles-mumps-rubella), is often used. Such a vaccine is very effective and is tolerated by babies with virtually no general or local reactions.

Emergency vaccinations may also be carried out. For example, in groups where a case of parotitis is detected. This will help protect others, but vaccinating a person who is already ill with mumps will not bring the expected effect. To avoid infection with mumps is possible only with the complete exclusion of contact with the sick. And this, as we already mentioned at the beginning of the article, is almost unrealistic in the first two days, since the patient has practically no symptoms.

If signs of mumps are found in a child, you should immediately call a pediatrician at home. A sick adult should contact an infectious disease specialist. It is not uncommon for adult patients to be referred to a dentist or an otolaryngologist at the first sign of mumps, who can recognize the disease in time.

In case of suspicion of complications in the form of meningitis, it will be necessary to consult a neurologist, with the development of pancreatitis, a gastroenterologist. Well, and, accordingly, if complications are suspected in the form of inflammation of the testicles, an examination by a urologist will be required, and if inflammation of the ovaries is suspected, an examination by a gynecologist. Among other things, a consultation with a nutritionist will be useful.