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Mumps And Rubella

by — Last updated: 2017-01-19 in Children's & Teens Health

Table of Contents

Do you think the MMR vaccine is scarier than the diseases it protects against? Think again.

Mumps

The World Health Organization describes mumps as "mostly a mild childhood disease". Far less frightening than measles, some who catch mumps have either no symptoms or extremely mild ones. Mumps is most common among pre-pubescent children. It's caused by the mumps virus and spread through saliva, including infected droplets a patient may cough or sneeze out. 

For those who do get symptoms, swollen and painful salivary glands is the most obvious sign.

This can occur on one or both sides and gives the infected person the characteristic puffed-up look. A fever, pain while swallowing, a headache, weakness, fatigue, and loss of appetite are other frequently-seen symptoms. Mumps has an incubation period of two to three weeks. Once symptoms appear, the disease generally runs its course within a week. 

Mumps, too, can be accompanied by unpleasant complications, however, especially for those are infected past-puberty. These complications include:

  • A swollen testicle, or orchitis. This generally happens four to eight days after the salivary glands begin to swell up. A little under half of post-puberty boys and men who catch mumps will see a reduction in the size of their testicles, while one in 10 will see a drop in sperm count. It's not generally big enough to cause infertility though.
  • Post-puberty girls and women who get mumps can experience something similar, a swelling of the ovaries. Also called oophoritis, this leads to pelvic pain, fever, and vomiting. Fortunately, most have no long-term consequences.
  • Viral meningitis is another possible complication. Note that this is nowhere near as serious as the viral meningitis that can be fatal, but it can still be scary. 
  • One in 20 mumps cases lead to acute pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas. This comes with a host of symptoms on top of normal mumps symptoms, including diarrhea and abdominal tenderness. It's not usually serious but patients may still need to be hospitalized. 
  • In rare cases, mumps can also lead to encephalitis and temporary hearing loss. The previous belief that mumps can lead to miscarriage now appears incorrect, but pregnant women should be careful to avoid contact with the disease just in case. 

Rubella

Rubella is another virus that is generally mild in children. Symptoms include a pink-red, spotty skin rash, a fever, cold or flu like symptoms like joint pain, a runny nose and a cough, and swollen glands in the head and neck. Symptoms appear a few weeks after exposure, with patients being most contagious between one to five days after the rash appears. 

Rubella is still a serious concern, however, because it can lead to miscarriage or stillbirth in pregnant women, as well as to something called Congenital Rubella Syndrome. A grand total of 90 percent of infected pregnant mothers pass rubella onto their unborn babies. 

See Also: Vaccines: How They Are Made And How They Work

Congenital Rubella Syndrome (CRS) can cause heart defects, eye and hearing problems, autism (yes, unlike the MMR!), type 1 diabetes and thyroid disorders. Four babies in every 1000 were born with CRS before the introduction of the MMR vaccine. Rubella is a great example of how vaccination programs benefit the whole community as well as the individuals being vaccinated. The WHO notes that "a single dose gives more than 95 percent long-lasting immunity, which is similar to that induced by natural infection". Those who aren't concerned about the symptoms of rubella themselves may agree that vaccinating their children may save their grand children's lives one day.