Home > Adults > Infectious Diseases and Microbiology >

Mumps

Checked: 28-05-2024 by Rob Adams Next Review: 28-05-2026

Overview

Please see Mumps: epidemiology, surveillance and control - for information about prevention, investigation and treatment of mumps.

There is also detailed information on diagnosis and management in Clinical Knowledge Summaries (1):

Mumps | CKS | NICE

When to suspect mumps

Symptoms and Signs

Consider a diagnosis of mumps in people presenting with parotitis (swollen parotid glands) — this is present in 95% of symptomatic cases (1).

Non-specific symptoms (which may precede parotitis), such as low-grade fever, headache, earache, malaise, muscle ache, and loss of appetite — typically occur 1 day before overt signs of parotitis and peak around the time the parotid glands are most swollen.

Complications

Epididymo-orchitis
Oophoritis
Viral Meningitis
Deafness
Pancreatitis

Isolation of suspected cases

Patients with suspected mumps should avoid public areas such as GP waiting rooms and should be seen separately away from other patient areas if possible.

Reporting and Testing

Reporting

Mumps is a notifiable disease and if suspected then the South West Health Protection Team should be informed routinely via email (or post) using the appropriate form. See the referral section on the Public Health and Notifiable Diseases page for details.

Testing

On notification, oral fluid testing kits will then be posted by the HPT as part of surveillance testing. Viral swab testing in primary care is therefore usually not required.

If more urgent testing is required, or for clinical advice, please contact the virology laboratory 0117 4146222, option 3.

If GPs have someone with them that they want to test then and there, then samples (mouth swab for PCR or serum for IgM) can be taken. However both tests have to be sent to other laboratories and consequently have an increased turnaround time. The virology team would prefer such cases were discussed with them to arrange this if being considered.

Resources

(1) Mumps | Health topics A to Z | CKS | NICE

Patient Information

Mumps - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Efforts are made to ensure the accuracy and agreement of these guidelines, including any content uploaded, referred to or linked to from the system. However, BNSSG ICB cannot guarantee this. This guidance does not override the individual responsibility of healthcare professionals to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual patient, in consultation with the patient and/or guardian or carer, in accordance with the mental capacity act, and informed by the summary of product characteristics of any drugs they are considering. Practitioners are required to perform their duties in accordance with the law and their regulators and nothing in this guidance should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with compliance with those duties.

Information provided through Remedy is continually updated so please be aware any printed copies may quickly become out of date.