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Mumps: what is the cause of this childhood disease?
Le virus ourlien, responsible for this disease, is easily transmitted by saliva droplets or sneezing. The disease also called parotidite ourlienne is therefore often rife with epidemics, especially from from the age of 3. The little patient is contagious from a week before the first symptoms until a week after. Hence the compulsory eviction of the nursery or the school during nine days. This virus quickly infests the body and will preferably lodge in the parotids (salivary glands). But it can also affect the pancreas, testes or ovaries, and more rarely, the nervous system.
What are the signs and symptoms of mumps in children?
They appear after a incubation (period between when the body is infected with the virus and the appearance of signs of the disease) 21 days. The child has a fever, often high (up to more than 40 ° C), he complains of headaches, body aches and has difficulty chewing food, swallowing food and even speaking. And above all, a characteristic feature of mumps: 24 hours after the first symptoms, its face is distorted for her parotid glands, under each ear, are excessively swollen and painful.
What is the treatment for mumps virus?
There is no specific treatment for mumps. The disease resolves spontaneously in about two weeks. And from the 4th day, the parotids begin to decrease in size. Homeopathy, on the other hand, can relieve its symptoms and reduce the duration of the disease. Give it alternately, every hour, 3 granules of Mercurius solubilis, Rhus tox and Pulsatilla (7 CH). When the disease improves, space the holds.
“Comfort” care for babies and children
In the meantime, leave your child in bed to rest and remember to find out while he has a fever. You can also give it paracetamol, in syrup or suppositories to lower his fever and relieve his pain. If he has trouble eating, make him purees and compotes that he will swallow more easily. And of course, think about giving it to him to drink regularly.
Main complication of mumps parotitis: meningitis
It concerns 4% of cases. The virus attacks not only the salivary glands, but also the brain meninges, causing meningitis. This disease heals on its own in 3 to 10 days, but it requires hospitalization to perform a puncture of the cerebrospinal fluid (lumbar puncture), the only way to ensure that this meningitis is indeed of viral and not bacterial origin, which would be much more serious.
Infertility, pancreas … Other (rare) complications in children
The mumps virus can also affect the testes (orchitis), causing testicular atrophy (and therefore a risk of infertility) in 0,5% of little boys, the pancreas (pancreatitis) or the auditory nerve. In this very rare case, the child risks permanent deafness.