Mumps

Mumps usually causes the following symptoms for about 7 to 10 days:

  • Fever
  • Headache
  • Muscle aches
  • Tiredness
  • Loss of appetite (not wanting to eat)
  • Swollen glands under the ears or jaw

Some people who get mumps do not have symptoms. Others may feel sick but will not have swollen glands.

Is it serious?

In most children, mumps is pretty mild. But in rare cases it can cause serious problems (just like the vaccine can), including:

  • Meningitis (swelling of the tissue covering the brain and spinal cord)
  • Deafness (temporary or permanent)
  • Encephalitis (swelling of the brain)
  • Orchitis (swelling of the testicles) in males who have reached puberty
  • Oophoritis (swelling of the ovaries) and/or mastitis (swelling of the breasts) in females who have reached puberty

How does mumps spread?

Mumps can spread through the saliva or mucus from the mouth, nose, or throat of an infected person when he or she:

  • coughs, sneezes, or talks.
  • shares items, such as cups or eating utensils, with others.
  • touches objects or surfaces with unwashed hands that are then touched by others.

Mumps can spread before swollen glands appear and up to 5 days afterward.

The vaccine used for Mumps is the MMRV

MMRV vaccine side-effects
(Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Varicella)

What are the risks from MMRV vaccine?

A vaccine, like any medicine, is capable of causing serious problems, such as severe allergic reactions.

Mild problems

  • Fever (about 1 child out of 5).
  • Mild rash (about 1 child out of 20).
  • Swelling of glands in the cheeks or neck (rare).

If these problems happen, it is usually within 5-12 days after the first dose. They happen less often after the second dose.

Moderate problems

  • Seizure caused by fever (about 1 child in 1,250 who get MMRV), usually 5-12 days after the first dose. They happen less often when MMR and varicella vaccines are given at the same visit as separate shots (about 1 child in 2,500 who get these two vaccines), and rarely after a 2nd dose of MMRV.
  • Temporary low platelet count, which can cause a bleeding disorder (about 1 child out of 40,000).

Severe problems (very rare)

Several severe problems have been reported following MMR vaccine, and might also happen after MMRV. These include severe allergic reactions (fewer than 4 per million), and problems such as:

  • Deafness.
  • Long-term seizures, coma, lowered consciousness.
  • Permanent brain damage.

How well does the Mumps vaccine work?

There have been many documented cases of Mumps outbreaks in highly vaccinated populations and there is an ongoing case of scientific fraud being levelled against Merck the makers of the MMR vaccine for lying about the effectiveness of their vaccine http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/lawrence-solomon/merck-whistleblowers_b_5881914.html

Mumps outbreak in a highly vaccinated school population. Evidence for large-scale vaccination failure.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7795768

Sustained Transmission of Mumps in a Highly Vaccinated Population: Assessment of Primary Vaccine Failure and Waning Vaccine-Induced Immunity

http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/169/1/77.short

A prolonged mumps outbreak among highly vaccinated Aboriginal people in the Kimberley region of Western Australia

https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2009/191/7/prolonged-mumps-outbreak-among-highly-vaccinated-aboriginal-people-kimberley

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/health/third-us-mumps-outbreak-new-jersey-patients-were-vaccinated

Mumps outbreak in Orthodox Jewish communities in the United States Update: Mumps Outbreak — New York and New Jersey, June 2009–January 2010

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5905a1.htm

Mumps outbreak in a highly vaccinated population

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022347605807267

Is there any scientific evidence of Mumps being beneficial for children?

Well-managed natural infectious diseases are beneficial for children, when infectious diseases of childhood are not mismanaged by the administration of antibiotics, or by suppressing fever. The diseases prime and mature the immune system and also represent developmental milestones.

Having measles not only results in life-long specific immunity to measles, but also in life-long non-specific immunity to degenerative diseases of bone and cartilage, sebaceous skin diseases, immunoreactive diseases and certain tumours as demonstrated by Ronne (1985).

Having mumps protects against ovarian cancer (West 1969).

http://www.vaccinationcouncil.org/2013/01/29/measles-vaccines-part-ii-benefits-of-contracting-measles-by-dr-viera-scheibner-phd/

Product vaccine information sheets