ISLAMABAD: Mumps, a highly contagious and painful viral infection caused by Mumps Virus (MuV), is quite common in occupied Kashmir these days, with the majority of patients unaware of what they are actually suffering from.
According to Kashmir Media Service (KMS), healthcare practitioners believe that the paramyxovirus, a frequent source of infection conveyed by airborne droplets from the upper respiratory tract, is the root cause of contagion. Fever, headache, fatigue, muscular pains and appetite loss, usually appear a few days after the condition begins.
The disease is serious and can take the symptoms as parotid or salivary gland discomfort, neck ache, trouble chewing, testicular pain and tenderness, muscular pains, fever, headache and fatigue two to three weeks to manifest after contracting the virus, the doctors said.
Mumps may spread easily when an infected person sneezes, laughs, coughs, and speaks. The virus spreads by microscopic droplets of fluid. It can also spread through contact with items people use, such as drinking glasses, straws and soiled tissues, Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan, renowned influenza expert opined.
Mumps, he said, is the virus that spreads by direct contact with saliva or respiratory droplets of an infected individual and replicates in the upper respiratory tract. “It is contagious. If people don’t wash their hands, whatever they touch might potentially transfer the virus to others,” he said.
When asked how a patient could find if he was infected with Mumps, Dr Nisar said, “Blood tests and buccal swabs, which involve taking a sample of cells from inside the mouth or nose painlessly, can confirm a positive result.
He said the Mumps virus complications, if ignored, can result in deafness and a variety of inflammatory disorders, the most prevalent of which are inflammation of the tentacle’s, breasts, pancreas, ovaries, meninges, and brain.” —APP
