Mumps - Fiji

International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>

Source: Fiji Times Online [edited]
< http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=48194>

Health ministry warns of mumps outbreak
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There is an outbreak of mumps in the Labasa and Suva areas, says
Health Ministry officer Doctor Josaia Samuela.

He said there had been an increasing number of mumps cases,
especially in the Labasa area, for the past 2 months.

"This has been evident from the reported number of cases seen at the
Labasa Hospital for the past 2 months. For the Suva area, there have
been anecdotal reports of increasing number of mump cases occurring
in various schools in Suva for the past 2 months.

"Labasa Hospital has [had] an average of 120 cases for the past 12
months. Lautoka Hospital reported about 30 cases in total for the
past 2 months, and the Suva Private Hospital reported 15 cases last
month [August 2006]," he said.

He said the reported mumps cases were based solely on clinical
symptoms of the patients since no blood test had been sent to Suva
for laboratory confirmation.

Dr. Samuela said mumps was the commonest cause of painful and swollen
salivary glands. "The most prominent symptoms are the presence of
painful swelling or lumps at the angle of the jaw. These swellings of
the salivary glands could be on one or both sides. Associated
symptoms include body aches, loss of appetite, generalized weakness,
headache and low grade fever," he said. He said that panadol was a
suitable and effective medicine for both fever and pain relief and
that soft food should be given to the affected child, as chewing made
the pain worse.

Dr. Samuela said the child infected with mumps should be stopped from
going to school until symptoms subside.

Last week, Fiji College of General Practitioners president Doctor
Wahid Khan said children suffering from mumps should be allowed a lot
of bed rest and not sent to school. He said that more than 50
patients had visited his general practice seeking treatment for mumps
and that proper care should be taken by the parents on the issue.

"If there are more than one child living in a household whose member
has the virus, the sick child's utensils should be kept separately
from the rest of the family, because it is a contagious disease that
could be passed easily from one member to another," he said.

He said children suffering from mumps should wear warm clothing and
drink a lot of fluids with paracetamol, panadeine and codeine.

"I have seen some boys who come with mumps and complain of pain in
the scrotum, and this was not good, so extra care should be taken at
all times," he said.

He said those infected with mumps should not be given orange or any
citrus drink to take while being infected because it could worsen the pain.

Meanwhile, Health Ministry chief executive officer Doctor Lepani
Waqatakirewa said the current outbreak was viral in origin and
antibiotics such as amoxycillin are for bacterial infections.

In a statement reacting to the current outbreak of mumps among
children, Dr. Waqatakirewa said virus and bacteria were different and
giving antibiotics for viral infection was a waste of medicine.

Some parents had shown concern that their children with virus-related
infectious were in fact given antibiotics.

"However, do note that in some children, there could be co-exiting
bacterial infection in the chest or elsewhere in the body. In such
cases, antibiotics such as amoxycillin could be prescribed," he said.


Mumps is a vaccine preventible disease. In a recent posting on
measles in Fiji, the information on vaccination program activities
mentioned that measles-rubella vaccine is used for routine
immunizations in Fiji. Hence, in the absence of a major vaccination
program, periodic outbreaks of mumps would be expected.