108 Cases Of Mumps Were Declared In King County

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Health officials declared that there already 108 people in greater Seattle area suffered from mumps. 35 have been confirmed and 73 are probable cases.

According to Herald Courier, Public Health Seattle and King County said that 64 percent of people in all the cases reported are being vaccinated against mumps. Likewise, in the 72 of the cases involve children ages 17 and below.

Majority of these children with mumps came from Auburn School District while others lived in the surrounding areas including Seattle where there is one case confirmed. Because of this, officials issued an announcement saying that anyone with symptoms should not attend school until five days after the glands are well.

Better Health describe mumps as a viral illness that causes fever and swollen salivary glands. It is a serious illness and potentially lethal due to complications such as inflammation of the brain or encephalitis and inflammation of the heart or myocarditis.

Mumps can easily be spread through person to person through ingestion or inhalation of droplets coming from the infected person by coughing or sneezing as well as it is also carried in the urine. But this disease is uncommon to the developed countries because of the widespread use of the mumps vaccine.

Signs and symptoms of mumps includes fever, headache, fatigue, weight loss, swollen parotid gland or salivary gland on one or both sides of the face, painful chewing and painful swallowing.

Mumps, if not immediately treated, it may lead to complications such as inflammation of the breast, testicle, ovary, brain, heart, thyroid, meninges, pancreas, liver; miscarriage in the first trimester of pregnancy and nerve deafness.

There is no specific medical treatment for mumps that is available. Likewise, since it is a viral infection, no antibiotics can work to treat the disease. Only the treatment of symptoms can be made to prevent and reduce the risk complications.

Person with mumps must have bed rest, take plenty of fluids, take paracetamol for fever, cold compress against the swollen parotid glands, take only soft and easy to swallow foods and do isolation to prevent the risk to spread the disease.