Mumps Cases On The Increase In The UK

The UK has seen an alarming increase in its number of mumps cases. In January of this year five thousand people were affected.

What Is The New Research Showing?

British Medical Journals have identified that some of these cases are occurring in vulnerable children. Cases are being seen both  in those born before MMR became a routine vaccination in 1988 and in children who have not been vaccinated, possibly due to vaccine safety fears. This data supports recent reports of rising mumps rates across England, Wales and Ireland.

In the first paper, the Health Protection Agency report that in 2004, the number of cases of mumps recorded in England and Wales hit 16,436, up from four thousand two hundred in 2003.

In the second paper, Dr Ravindra Gupta, from London's Guy's and St Thomas', working with colleagues from King's College London, found examples of mumps hitting very young children who would have been eligible for the MMR vaccine.

The World Health Organization recommends that at least ninety per cent of all those eligible receive the vaccine.

However, Dr Gupta's data claims that the uptake of MMR vaccines fell to under eighty per cent in 2003/4.

What Is Mumps?

• Mumps is a viral infection of the saliva-producing glands found either side of the face
• Mumps is spread by coughs and sneezes
• symptoms develop 14 to 24 days after exposure
• begins with fever, shivers, tiredness and painful swelling of parotid glands
• can rarely cause serious complications

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, speaking on BBC's Breakfast programme, said:

 "The most important thing for parents and for young adults who didn't get a vaccination at the normal age, is go to the GP, go to the surgery and get the vaccination done now."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "The Department of Health has alerted GPs to the risk posed by mumps to young adults and recommends that every effort should be made to ensure that all children are fully immunised even if they are older than the recommended age range.