Mumps - Diseases and Vaccines

Immunisation
Mumps

Virus
Mumps is an acute viral illness, and a few cases occur each year in New Zealand.

Vaccine
This disease is covered on the New Zealand Immunisation Schedule. The vaccine used is M-M-R^® II.

How it is spread
It is spread through the air by breathing, coughing and sneezing.

The symptoms and illness
Mumps causes fever, headache and swelling of the glands around the face.

Severe risks associated with mumps

In about one in ten people it causes meningitis, but it is usually relatively mild.
It causes encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) in about one in 6000 people, of whom one in 100 will die, and nerve deafness in one in 15,000 people.
If infected after puberty, one in 5 males gets testicle inflammation and one in 20 females gets ovary inflammation. In rare cases this leads to infertility.

Severe risks associated with the vaccine

Aseptic mumps meningitis occurs in one in 800,000 vaccine recipients. This is less severe than the illness caused by the mumps virus.

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Page last updated: 13 June 2008