What is Mumps? Mumps is a viral disease unique to the human race caused by the mumps virus. It was a common viral disease in children until the concoction of the vaccination, though it is still a common threat to children in less developed countries. The poster symptom of mumps is the swelling of the glands below and around the ear causing large protrusions on both sides of the face to appear. These remain for around two weeks.
Mumps come along with symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle aches, loss of appetite, sometimes developing into anorexia, fatigue and vomiting in some cases. Mumps is caused directly by the mumps virus infecting the glands of humans. The virus is transferred when an infected individual's saliva gets into the system of a non infected individual, causing the virus to spread through the blood veins. The virus is eventually incubated and carried to the glands of an individual where it begins to develop symptoms.
The infection may last up to two weeks after the symptoms persist. In some cases, if saliva of an infected individual is transferred on the skin of another individual, the saliva can retain the virus for up to several days if not washed off appropriately.
If another individual inhales or gets the saliva into their system through open wounds or other orifices, it can result in the contraction of the disease. After contracting the disease, an individual's saliva is infectious and carries the disease for up to two weeks. During this two weeks, if any of the individual's saliva makes its way into the system of any other non infected individual, it may result in the contraction of Mumps. However, if the individual's immune system is functioning strongly, the virus may be defeated before contraction.