Clinical profile of mumps in children in a tertiary care hospital in Kashmir

Abstract

Background Mumps is one of the oldest human illnesses known to humans. Mumps is caused by a paramyxovirus, which is a single-strand RNA virus. Mumps is characterized by painful, unilateral, or bilateral swelling of the salivary glands, in particular, the parotid glands. Methods: This is a hospital-based prospective observational study. All children of age ≤18 years, both males and females with acute onset of unilateral or bilateral tender, self-limited swelling of the parotid or other salivary gland without other apparent cause. Results: Of the 150 clinically diagnosed mumps cases, 87 (58%) were male and 63 (42%) were female (male-to-female ratio of 1.4:1). There was no case below 1 year but there were 40 cases between 1 and 5 years. The 40% belonged to the lower middle class of socioeconomic status as per Kuppuswamy’s scale, followed by the upper-middle and lower-middle class. Only 15 patients (10%) were completely immunized whereas the immunization status of 8% patients was not known, and the rest of the patients were non immunized (82%). Fever was the most common presentation (150 patients;100%), followed by parotid involvement. Parotitis was present in 146 (97.3%) cases at some point during the illness, 36 patients (24%) had unilateral and 110 patients (73.3%) had bilateral involvement. 16% of patients had multiple salivary gland involvement. Mean duration of illness was 9.0±2 days. Conclusions: Mumps is a significant public health problem to warrant investment in prevention through vaccination.