Epidemic parotiditis - mumps

Epidemic parotiditis is an infectious disease which is also called mumps or parotitis. The main symptoms of mumps are: fever, intoxication of the whole organism, and salivary glands involvement. There are cases when sexual glands (or other glands) as well as the nervous system are affected by the disease. Mumps is caused by a very infectious virus. One can get infected from another person. One can infect somebody in one or 2 days before the first symptoms of parotitis appear and five days after that. This way a large group of people can get infected during a short period of time. That is why the disease is also called epidemic parotiditis.

Epidemic parotiditis usually causes these symptoms: central nervous system damage, weakness, inflammatory process in testicle and epididymis, slight indisposition, salivary glands involvement, headache, and pain in muscles. Epidemic parotiditis can also cause loss of appetite and insomnia, shivering.

How to treat mumps?

Mumps is usually treated at home. If a patient suffers orchitis or central nervous system damage, he has to be hospitalized and treated in contagious isolation ward. Such patients need bed rest for 10 days. Patients with salivary glands involvement will be prescribed a diet containing liquid milk and vegetable food. It is advised to consume less fats, white bread, and fibers. It is also desirable that the patient should rinse his mouth cavity after food. These measures will give salivary glands some rest and let them recover faster. Mumps complicated by orchitis is treated with the help of prednisolone and suspensory. They are used for about a week. Meningitis is treated with the help of various corticosteroid medicines (usually hydrocortisone or prednisolone). Lumbar punctures and intravenous injections of urotropine solution are also used to treat meningitis which is a possible complication of mumps. If a patient suffers pancreatitis, he will be prescribed liquid sparing diet as well as medicamental therapy papaverine, atropine, inhibitive ferments, and hordox. Moreover, it is recommended to place cubes of ice on stomach.

It is worth mentioning that nowadays there is no medicine that can affect epidemic parotitis virus. Epidemic parotiditis itself is not as dangerous as its possible complications: pancreatitis, orchitis, encephalomeningitis, and oophoritis.