Kerala is witnessing a mumps outbreak with the state having reported 190 cases in a single day on March 10 (Sunday). There have been 2,505 cases of the viral infection this month, and 11,467 cases in the little over two months this year, according to Kerala health department data.
Officials from the Union Health Ministry confirmed the outbreak and said that the National Centre for Disease Control in the state has been alerted.
Mumps is caused by the paramyxovirus that is spread through direct contact or airborne droplets from the upper respiratory tract of an infected person. It takes two to four weeks for the symptoms to manifest, which begin with low-grade fever, headache, bodyache, and malaise. The most distinctive symptom of the disease is the swelling of the salivary glands. It usually affects young children but adolescents and adults can also get infected.
Most of the cases are being reported from Malappuram district and other parts of north Kerala, according to officials. While there exists a vaccine against mumps, along with measles and rubella, it is not part of the government’s universal immunisation programme.
According to public health experts, children can receive the mumps-measles-rubella (MMR) vaccine against all three diseases at private centres. “Even if children have received their measles-rubella (MR) vaccine that is part of the government’s immunisation programme, they can get an MMR vaccine from private centres.
For a government programme, an MMR vaccine doesn’t make sense, as it doesn’t provide as good a protection against mumps as it does against measles and rubella, where more than 90 per cent people can be protected with just two doses,” said an immunisation expert on condition of anonymity. He said: “Malappuram is a district where vaccine hesitancy has been the highest in Kerala traditionally.”
In most cases, mumps is a self-limiting disease, but in rare cases it can lead to complications such as swelling of the brain, hearing loss, and painful inflammation of the testis in adult males.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 12-03-2024 at 02:50 IST
