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Epidemic parotitis is an acute infectious disease of viral etiology. It is mainly a childhood disease, most commonly affecting children between the ages of 5 and 9. However, the mumps virus can infect adults, with possible complications that are likely to be severe. Complications of mumps can include meningitis (up to 15% of cases), orchitis, and deafness. Very rarely, mumps can lead to encephalitis and chronic neurological disease.
Characteristics of the vaccination process
Infectious parotitis is not a life-threatening disease, but doctors strongly recommend getting vaccinated against this disease to avoid complications.
Death in parotitis occurs in the rarest cases, and even then due to the occurrence of severe complications. However, before the introduction of universal immunization of children against mumps, the disease led to epidemics every year. There were practically no children who would not have encountered him.
The mumps virus leads to damage to the glandular tissue of the entire body, including the gonads, pancreas, and others. The pancreas can be damaged very actively, accompanied by intense pain in the left hypochondrium, with an existing risk of pancreatic necrosis, in case of delayed medical care. And after recovery, a person will need lifelong observation of a gastroenterologist, since the glandular tissue of the pancreas cannot fully restore itself and replacement therapy with enzyme preparations will be required. Male patients may suffer from complications of mumps associated with inflammation of the testicular apparatus (orchitis and orchiepididymitis), which can lead to testicular atrophy. With the development of bilateral orchitis, there is a possibility of loss of fertile function.
Also, the most severe complications that can occur as a result of mumps include encephalitis and meningoencephalitis, characterized by inflammatory processes in the brain and meninges. It is these complications that can lead patients to disability or death. Another complication of parotitis is deafness, which develops due to damage to the auditory nerve during the course of the disease.
In order to avoid all of the above pathologies, it is imperative to be vaccinated against mumps at an early age. This is the only way to avoid epidemic outbreaks and, therefore, to protect your own child from possible incurable diseases in the future. WHO recommends integrating mumps management strategies with existing priority targets to control or eliminate measles and rubella
Vaccination is included in the obligatory calendar of preventive vaccinations. In addition, vaccination can be carried out urgently when those with whom the person is in close contact fall ill with mumps.
Routine first vaccination is given to young children at the age of 1 year. In the presence of temporary contraindications, it can be postponed until the age of one and a half years. In both cases, the child will receive a dose of a live vaccine, which will most optimally be able to form antibodies to the mumps virus in his body.
It is important to understand that a single vaccination is not always able to form a stable 100% immunity, therefore, a second vaccination is carried out at the age of a child under 6 years of age. If the re-vaccination was carried out at a later date, then it is necessary to re-vaccinate, or re-immunization, one year after the first.
In cases of an epidemic of parotitis, children or adolescents who did not pass at all or did not pass the full course of the prescribed vaccination are vaccinated in large quantities. This rule especially applies to adolescence, since it is in it that the vast majority of severe complications of this disease occur. At the same time, even in vaccinated children, a serological test is performed, which shows the amount of antibodies in the blood to this pathogen. If the antibody level is not high enough, the child may be vaccinated again.
The introduction of the vaccine is carried out in the shoulder or subscapular region. It is permissible for small children to inject the drug intramuscularly into the thigh area.
Contraindications, reactions and complications during vaccination
In order for vaccination to proceed easily and practically asymptomatically, it is important to know some of the rules for these vaccinations. Moreover, in general, vaccination against mumps in our country is carried out with a multicomponent vaccine, which effectively creates immunity against other infections – measles and rubella.
The main contraindications for human vaccination against mumps include:
- all kinds of immunodeficiency states (HIV infection, oncological diseases), since in this case side effects from the introduction of vaccines develop more often, as well as a higher probability of vaccination failure – the absence of the formation of a protective antibody titer (post-vaccination immunity). In this regard, the indications and timing of the introduction of vaccines are determined individually for each patient;
- exacerbation of chronic diseases or the presence of acute viral diseases – in this case, it is necessary to wait for recovery or a stable remission of the disease, and only then get vaccinated;
- the presence of a complex reaction to a previous vaccine of a similar effect;
- hypersensitivity (including to aminoglycosides, quail egg protein);
- the state of pregnancy (even in the presence of an epidemic situation around).
In general, mumps vaccine or its component in multicomponent vaccination preparations is tolerated by patients without any problems. Very rarely, a child’s body can respond to the introduced mumps vaccine with weakness, ailments, and headaches. A week after the vaccine is given, the child may have a decrease in appetite and sleep disturbance.
Sometimes pediatricians observe signs of a respiratory infection after vaccination of patients – hyperemia of the pharynx, runny nose, low temperature. At the same time, it is important to warn the doctor about the previous vaccination, since in this case the child simply needs to maintain a daily regimen corresponding to his condition, and you can not take any medications. Also, for about three days, the child may experience enlarged parotid glands.
With normal immunity, after 10-14 days, all such symptoms disappear on their own and do not need additional therapy. With strong immunity, the child may not feel anything at all after the immunization. Rarely, complications from mumps vaccination occur. They can be expressed in persistent high body temperature, weakness. These processes usually begin after the 7th day after vaccination. Aseptic meningitis and encephalitis can occur much less frequently. Allergic reactions are more common than other complications and are easy to recognize by the time of occurrence – as a rule, an allergy to a vaccine occurs almost immediately after vaccination.
Immediately after vaccination, some patients develop mumps. Doctors believe that this state of affairs is evidence that all the rules, precautions and contraindications were not followed before vaccination.
For mild reactions to immunization, the patient does not need treatment, if complications occur, he needs to be examined and consulted by a doctor, and if serious conditions occur, hospitalization may sometimes be necessary.
In order to avoid the occurrence of complications after vaccinations, it is always necessary to prepare the child in a special way. Preparation for vaccination includes the choice of the necessary drug for immunization, a mandatory examination by a pediatrician on the eve of vaccination, isolation of the child for several days before and for several days after the immunization from a large crowd of people, adherence to the daily regimen after vaccination. It is not recommended to rub and steam the injection site. After the introduction of the vaccine, the patient must be observed for half an hour. It is this time that is enough to determine whether the child will have a severe allergic or other reaction to the administered drug.
Variety of Vaccines Offered
To date, several different types of vaccines can be offered to parents in medical institutions for vaccinating children against mumps. These can be either single-component vaccines, such as the domestic live mumps vaccine, or multi-component vaccines. The most popular today are the multicomponent vaccines Priorix (a Belgian preparation for measles, rubella and mumps), MMR II (similar to Priorix, but American-made), a lyophilisate of a live attenuated vaccine against three infections and a live mumps-measles vaccine. All of the above vaccines affect mumps pathogens in the same way, the only difference is that multicomponent vaccines are more convenient to use and they usually cause fewer side effects in the body of the vaccinated.
It is important to remember that even after complete immunization, it is still possible to get sick with mumps. However, in vaccinated people, the disease proceeds much easier, without complications. This is especially important if the child is vaccinated urgently after contact with an infected person, because in this case the probability of getting sick is almost 100%, and care must be taken to ensure that the disease does not go into a severe stage.
There is a possibility of mumps even in the case of previous immunizations. In this case, the course of the disease will be mild in the absence of complications. In adulthood, when in contact with a child with mumps, it is recommended to do an appropriate analysis for the presence of antibodies in the adult body. If the antibody level is low, it is better to be immunized again to avoid complications of the disease and regain immunity to the mumps virus.
In general, immunization against mumps is indicated for absolutely all children, since the side effects of vaccinations are much easier to tolerate than the complications that this disease entails.