I got mumps, can I get it again?

This is an automatically translated article.

The article was professionally consulted with Specialist Doctor II Huynh Thi Diem Thuy - Vaccine Consultant - Pediatrics - Neonatology Department, Vinmec Central Park International General Hospital.
Mumps is an acute infectious disease transmitted by the respiratory tract. Mumps has no specific treatment and can leave many serious sequelae for children as well as adults. There is currently a vaccine to prevent mumps, but if you get mumps, can you get it again?

1. What is mumps?

Mumps is caused by a virus of the Paramyxovirus family. The disease is common in children aged 5-14 years old and usually does not occur in children under 1 year old thanks to passive immunity from the mother.
Mumps is easily transmitted from person to person through inhalation: saliva, cough, sneeze and when sharing personal items. Mumps mainly affects the salivary glands, also known as the parotid glands. These glands are responsible for the production of saliva. There are three sets of salivary glands on each side of the face, located behind and below the ears. The characteristic symptom of mumps is swelling of the salivary glands.
The disease has a high risk of spreading and can become an epidemic occurring everywhere, especially in crowded places such as schools, kindergartens, amusement parks... Especially in winter and winter In spring, mumps spreads more because the temperature is lowered, so the pathogen is easy to spread.

2. Signs to identify a child with mumps

Parotid salivary gland inflammation

This is one of the most common symptoms. Children often feel pain in the outer ear canal, then spread around. Children often have swelling on both sides of the parotid glands, one after the other a few hours later by day. In addition, children will also have systemic symptoms such as fever, fatigue, headache, joint pain, poor sleep. After about 1 week, the parotid gland reduces pain and becomes smaller, the patient's fever is gone, and other symptoms are also gradually reduced.
Orchitis in mumps
Orchitis can be seen in mumps, especially in children who are going through puberty.
Orchitis usually occurs 1 to 2 weeks after swelling of the parotid gland, but sometimes occurs alone without the parotid gland. Patients show signs of high fever again, sometimes chills, headache, vomiting. Initially, the patient feels pain in the testicle, then the testicle swells 3-4 times larger than normal, painful, the scrotum is red, sometimes the epididymis is also swollen. The disease progresses for about 4-5 days, the patient will have no fever, but the testicles will swell for a longer time and do not turn pus. After about 2 weeks, the testicles will stop swelling and it will take 2 months to evaluate whether the testicles have atrophy or not.
Meningitis
Mumps virus encephalitis occurs about 1-10%, especially in young children, can occur alone or 3-10 days after parotid gland inflammation. Patients present with high fever, headache, vomiting, confusion, convulsions, stiff neck.
Acute pancreatitis
Acute pancreatitis occurs in about 3-7%, usually seen in adults, most of them are hidden, only manifest changes through testing. The disease occurs in the second week (from the 4th to 10th day) when the parotid gland inflammation has improved. Some possible symptoms are fever again, epigastric pain accompanied by possible symptoms such as vomiting, abdominal bloating, loss of appetite...
Other symptoms
Other signs: rarer such as: myocarditis, subacute thyroiditis, polyarthritis, interstitial pneumonia, lacrimal gland inflammation, uveitis...

3. Did you get mumps and then get it again?

According to many research documents, mumps is only acquired once in a person's life. After being infected with mumps, there will be neutralizing antibodies in the body. These antibodies are maintained in low concentrations but have a protective effect, conferring lifelong immunity. Therefore, people who have had mumps in the past can rest assured that they will not get it again.
However, it is not because of immunity that you can comfortably come into contact with infected people, each person should take proactive measures to protect their own health.
Currently, Vinmec General Hospital is implementing a package vaccination program to help children get comprehensive protection, increase resistance to minimize the risk of disease.

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