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• Start Here
• Symptoms
• Diagnosis and Tests
• Prevention and Risk Factors

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Summary

Mumps is an illness caused by the mumps virus. It starts with:

• Fever
• Headache
• Muscle aches
• Tiredness
• Loss of appetite

After that, the salivary glands under the ears or jaw become swollen and tender. The swelling can be on one or both sides of the face. Symptoms last 7 to 10 days. Serious complications are rare.

You can catch mumps by being with another person who has it. There is no treatment for mumps, but the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine can prevent it.

Before the routine vaccination program in the United States, mumps was a common illness in infants, children and young adults. Now it is a rare disease in the U.S.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Start Here

• About Mumps (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Mumps (American Academy of Family Physicians) Also in Spanish
• Mumps (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish

Symptoms

• Mumps Symptoms and Complications (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Diagnosis and Tests

• Antibody Serology Tests (National Library of Medicine) Also in Spanish
• Measles and Mumps Tests (National Library of Medicine) Also in Spanish

Prevention and Risk Factors

• Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) Vaccination: What Everyone Should Know (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• MMR Vaccine (Measles, Mumps and Rubella): What You Need to Know (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) - PDF Also in Spanish
• MMRV Vaccine (Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Varicella): What You Need to Know (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) - PDF Also in Spanish

Related Issues

• Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) Vaccine Safety Information (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Statistics and Research

• Mumps Cases and Outbreaks (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Clinical Trials

• ClinicalTrials.gov: Mumps (National Institutes of Health)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

• Article: The effect of mumps vaccine on the incidence of mumps in...
• Article: Decade-long protection of the mumps vaccine: Insights from a large-scale serological...
• Article: Molecular characterization and genetic diversity of mumps virus genotype G in...
• Mumps -- see more articles

Find an Expert

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Also in Spanish
• National Foundation for Infectious Diseases
• National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Men

• Orchitis (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)

Women

• Measles, Mumps, Rubella and the MMR Vaccine during Pregnancy (Organization of Teratology Information Specialists) Also in Spanish

Patient Handouts

• MMR Vaccine (Measles, Mumps and Rubella): What You Need to Know (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) - PDF Also in Spanish
• MMRV Vaccine (Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Varicella): What You Need to Know (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) - PDF Also in Spanish
• Mumps (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Orchitis (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish