Mumps (BEKE) : Why It Can Be The Reason of Infertility in Adults?

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There are a lot of factors that can cause infertility, but how does a childhood virus render someone childless?

What causes mumps?

Mumps is caused by a virus. Mumps is rarely risky, only if the individual with mumps gets it at the right age.

When in elementary-school-age children, it usually causes nothing more than a mild swelling of the face and a high fever.

The disease can be fatal, and vaccination is a good idea for nearly any child, but mumps in a pre-adolescent child is not generally something to be worried about.

What are the symptoms of mumps?

Individuals with mumps usually first feel sick with nonspecific symptoms like headache, loss of appetite, and low-grade fever.

The most well-known sign of mumps is parotitis, the swelling of the salivary glands, or parotid glands, below the ear.

Parotitis occurs only in 31% to 65% of individuals infected with mumps. From 15% to 27% of people with mumps have no signs or symptoms of illness; others may have respiratory symptoms or only nonspecific symptoms such as headache, loss of appetite, and low-grade fever.

How long does it take to show signs of mumps after being exposed?

The incubation period of mumps is usually 16–18 days, but can range from 12–25 days.

How does mumps spread?

Mumps spreads from person to person via droplets of saliva or mucus from the mouth, nose, or throat of an infected person, usually when the person coughs, sneezes, or talks. The virus may also be spread indirectly when someone with mumps touches items or surfaces without washing their hands and then someone else touches the same surface and rubs their mouth or nose. Mumps is less contagious than measles or chickenpox.

How serious is mumps including infertility to adults?

In children, mumps is usually a mild disease. Adults may have more serious disease and more complications. So, what are possible complications from mumps?

Before a vaccine was available, mumps accounted for about 10% of viral meningitis reported in the United States. This complication is now rare. Up to10% of postpubertal males experience orchitis (testicular inflammation) as a complication of mumps. This may involve pain, swelling, nausea, vomiting, and fever, with tenderness of the area possibly lasting for weeks. Approximately half of patients with orchitis have some degree of testicular atrophy, but sterility is rare.

Inflammation of the ovaries (oophoritis) and/or breasts (mastitis) can occur in females who have reached puberty. An increase in spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) has been found among women who developed mumps during the first trimester of preg- nancy in some studies but not in others; however, there is no evidence that mumps causes birth defects. Deafness, in one or both ears, can occur in approxi- mately one per 20,000 reported cases of mumps.

How is mumps diagnosed?

Mumps is diagnosed by a combination of symptoms and physical signs and laboratory confirmation of the virus, as not all cases develop characteristic parotitis and not all cases of parotitis are caused by mumps.

How long is a person with mumps contagious?

People with mumps are usually considered most infectious from a few days before until 5 days after the onset of parotitis. Therefore, CDC recommends isolating mumps patients for 5 days after their glands begin to swell.

What should be done if someone is exposed to mumps?

If the exposed person has not been vaccinated against mumps, receiving the vaccine after exposure to the virus will not help prevent disease if the per- son has already been infected. However, if they did not become infected after this particular exposure, the vaccine may help protect him or her against future infection with the mumps virus.

Is there a treatment for mumps?

There is no cure for mumps, only supportive treat- ment (bed rest, fluids, and fever reduction).