Mumps is a viral infection transmitted by and affecting only humans. The salivary glands especially the parotid glands are well known to be involved during a mumps infection, many other organ systems may also experience the effects of the virus infection.
Mumps virus is a single strand of RNA housed inside a two-layered envelope that provides the virus its characteristic immune signature. Only one type of mumps virus has been demonstrated to exist (in contrast to the many virus types that can cause the common cold).
Mumps is highly contagious on the order of magnitude of both influenza and rubella (German measles).
Mumps transmitted only from human to huma, mumps has a rapid spread among members living in close quarters via respiratory droplets expelled during sneezing or coughing. Less frequently, the respiratory droplets may land on fomites (sheets, pillows, clothing) and then be transmitted via hand-to-mouth contact after touching such items.
Animals cannot contract or spread mumps.
Risk factors for mumps include:
- Failure to vaccinate completely (two separate doses) with exposure to those with mumps or vaccinate during other disease especially infections. In case of infections only Homeopathically triturated vaccine is allowed to patients.
- Age: The highest risk of contracting mumps is for a child between 2 and 12 years of age.
- Season: Outbreaks of mumps were most likely during the winter/spring seasons.
- Weakening immune system: either due to diseases (for example, HIV/AIDS, cancer) or medication (oral steroid use for more than two weeks, chemotherapy).
Incubation Period of Mumps
There is a 14-18-day period between contracting the mumps virus and the onset of symptoms and signs. Viral shedding is short-lived and a patient should be isolated from other susceptible individuals for the first five days following the onset of swelling of the salivary (parotid) glands.
The highest likelihood of spreading mumps covers the period of two days before the onset of symptoms and the first five days of parotid gland swelling and tenderness.
Routine cases of mumps last approximately seven to 10 days.
Symptoms of mumps
Nonspecific symptoms of low-grade fever, headache, muscle aches (myalgia), reduced appetite, and malaise occur during the first 48 hours of mumps infection. Parotid gland swelling characteristically is present on day three of illness. (The parotid gland is a salivary gland located anterior to the ear and above the angle of the jaw — imagine a large set of sideburns.) The parotid gland is swollen and tender to touch, and referred pain to the ear may also occur.
Parotid gland swelling may last up to 10 days, and adults generally experience worse symptoms than children. Patients will experience tender inflammation of their parotid glands.
Interestingly about 15%-20% of mumps cases have no clinical evidence of infection, and 50% of patients will have only nonspecific respiratory symptoms and not the characteristic described above. Adults are more likely to experience such a subclinical or respiratory-only constellation of symptoms while children between 2 and 9 years of age are more likely to experience the classic presentation of mumps with parotid gland swelling.
The unique physical exam findings seen in those with mumps are swelling and tenderness of one or both parotid glands on the sides of the face.
The parotid glands are embedded into the cheeks in front of the ear where a large set of sideburns would be. Less commonly affected are the salivary glands located under the lower jaw (mandible) or under the tongue (sublingual salivary glands).
Diagnosis of mumps
The diagnosis of mumps is primarily one of clinical acumen. Laboratory studies are generally done to support the clinical impression. The purpose of these laboratory studies is to exclude other viruses that may give a similar clinical presentation as well as to exclude very infrequently similarly presenting parotid gland enlargement (for example, salivary gland cancer, Sjögren’s syndrome, IgG-4 related disease, sarcoidosis, side effects of thiazide diuretics etc.).
Allopathic treatment for mumps 
There is no treatment for mumps in allopathy, the mainstay of allopathic treatment (regardless of age range) is to provide only comfort for this self-limited disease. Taking analgesics medication and applying warm packs to the swollen and inflamed salivary gland region may be helpful.
Homeopathic treatment for mumps
Homeopathy is ocean of knowledge having treatment for almost any disease; a good doctor should learn and study Materia medica to deal with. Here are very few medicines for mums:
Belladonna
Belladonna is one of the best medicines for mumps when accompanied by fever. Swelling of the parotid glands with severe shooting and/or stitching pain. Inflammation. Tearing pain in middle and external ear. Facial neuralgia with twitching muscles and flushed face. Throbbing headache and dryness of the throat. Hematoma auris. Acute and sub-acute conditions of Eustachian tube.
Aconitum
Tickling and sharp pain in the ears. Early stages of mumps, these children have a sudden onset of fever, restlessness, anxiety, and great thirst. Pain in the throat, with deep redness and difficult deglutition. Tingling in the esophagus. Scraping, tingling sensation of strangling, burning and pricking. Attacks of pain with thirst and redness of the cheeks. Dry burning temperature, with extreme thirst. Inflammatory fevers and inflammations, with much heat, dry, burning skin, violent thirst, red face, or alternate red and pale face, nervous excitability, groaning and agonized tossing about, shortness of breath, and congestion to the head.
Chamomilla
Sore throat, with swelling of the parotids, of the tonsils, and of the sub-maxillary glands. Inflammation of the soft palate and tonsils. Pains in the pharynx, shooting and burning, or a sensation as if there were a plug in the throat. Inability to swallow. Burning heat in the throat, from the mouth to the stomach.
Apis Mellifica
Dryness in the throat with heat, without thirst. Burning, stinging in throat. Erysipelatous. Mumps. Inflammation of the throat, with swelling, redness, and stinging pains. Ulcerated sore throat (in scarlet fever, when the eruption does not come out). Diphtheritic sore throat gets well as a scarlatina rash develops. Throat swollen, breathing and swallowing difficult. Ulcers on the tonsils, Palat. Uvula long and dropsical. Paralysis. Small, clear, watery blisters on the back part of the throat.
Phytolacca
Mumps. Stony hard throat glands. Uvula large, almost translucent. Fauces congested and of a dark red color. Sore throat (roughness and rawness), swelling of soft palate. Soreness of posterior fauces extending into Eustachian tube.
Lachesis
Lachesis is an effective medicine for mumps. Constant tickling in throat. Septic Parotiditis. Painful excoriation and inflammatory swelling of throat. Large and small tumors in throat. Convulsions and spasms in throat.
Pilocarpinum
Some homeopaths assert that this medicine is the best remedy for the mumps, although there are few known distinguishing symptoms that it offers, except excessive salivation and perspiration. This is also a good remedy for complications that some children get from the mumps.
Merc Sol
A highly effective medicine for mumps. Bluish-red swelling. Constant desire to swallow. Putrid sore throat; worse right side. Stitches into ear on swallowing; fluids return through nose. Quinsy, with difficult swallowing, after pus has formed. Sore, raw, smarting, burning throat. Complete loss of voice. Burning in throat, as from hot vapor ascending.
Pulsatilla Pratensis
Pain as from excoriation in throat, as if it were all raw, with scraping, burning sensation and smarting. Redness of throat, tonsils, and uvula. Shootings in throat, with pressure and tension during empty deglutition. Inflammation of throat, with varicose swelling of veins.
Rhus Toxicodendron
Sore, with swollen glands. Sticking pain on swallowing. Parotitis. Mumps. Pain in ears. Lobules swelling.
Complications
There are four serious health complications of mumps: meningitis (infection of the spinal fluid which surrounds the brain and spinal cord), encephalitis, deafness, and orchitis (infection of the testicle/testicles). All four complications may occur without the patient experiencing the classic involvement of the parotid gland.
Less frequent health complications of mumps infection include arthritis, infection of the pancreas, infection of the myocardium (heart muscle), and neurological conditions (for example, facial palsy, Guillain-Barré syndrome, etc.).
Prognosis
Mumps is generally a benign self-limited disease that produces lifelong immunity. Allopathic medicines side effects could be extremely severe.
Non-immune women who contract mumps during the first trimester of their pregnancy have an increased rate of miscarriage, but infants carried to term have no higher risk for congenital malformations.
More common side effects of the MMR vaccine include
- stinging/burning at the injection site,
- mild fever, and
- mild skin rash.
- The fever and skin rash most commonly develop five to 12 days postvaccination and occur more commonly after the first vaccination.
- Some recipients of the vaccine will note mild enlargement and tenderness of local (for example, neck) lymph nodes.
It should be noted that these relatively common side effects are considerably less severe than acquiring any of the three illnesses the MMR vaccine is designed to prevent.
In extremely rare situations, more severe reactions affecting the nervous system, gastrointestinal system, digestive organs, the skin, and others may occur.
P. S: This article is only for doctors having good knowledge about Homeopathy and allopathy, for learning purpose(s).
For proper consultation and treatment, please visit our clinic.
None of above-mentioned medicine(s) is/are the full/complete treatment, but just hints for treatment; every patient has his/her own constitutional medicine.
To order medicine by courier, please send your details at WhatsApp– +923119884588
Dr. Sayyad Qaisar Ahmed (MD {Ukraine}, DHMS), Abdominal Surgeries, Oncological surgeries, Gastroenterologist, Specialist Homeopathic Medicines.
Senior research officer at Dnepropetrovsk state medical academy Ukraine.
Location: Al-Haytham clinic, Umer Farooq Chowk Risalpur Sadder (0923631023, 03119884588), K.P.K, Pakistan.
Find more about Dr Sayed Qaisar Ahmed at:
https://www.youtube.com/Dr Qaisar Ahmed
https://www.facebook.com/ahmed drqaisar