Egypt records more than 800 mumps cases since September

There has been 838 cases of the viral infection, mumps reported in Egypt since September says one Egyptian health expert in a Egypt Independent report Sunday.

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According to Dr. Amr Qandil, head of the Health Ministry’s Preventive Medicine Department, there is no cause for alarm as mumps is a simple virus. There is “No need to exaggerate the matter.”

Qandil expected the figure to rise by March 2014.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mumps is a contagious disease that is caused by the mumps virus. Mumps typically starts with a few days of fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness, and loss of appetite, and is followed by swelling of salivary glands.

Mumps is spread by droplets of saliva or mucus from the mouth, nose, or throat of an infected person, usually when the person coughs, sneezes or talks. Items used by an infected person, such as cups or soft drink cans, can also be contaminated with the virus, which may spread to others if those items are shared.

Symptoms typically appear 16-18 days after infection, but this period can range from 12-25 days after infection.

It is usually a mild disease, but can occasionally cause serious complications.

The most common complication is inflammation of the testicles (orchitis) in males who have reached puberty; rarely does this lead to fertility problems.

Other rare complications include inflammation of the brain and/or tissue covering the brain and spinal cord(encephalitis/meningitis), inflammation of the ovaries (oophoritis) and/or breasts (mastitis) in females who have reached puberty and deafness.

Anyone who is not immune from either previous mumps infection or from vaccination can get mumps.

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