Big Increase in Mumps Cases Among Young Adults

By Alison Hardie Health Correspondent

THE incidence of mumps in Scotland has risen dramatically, with the number of suspected cases doubling over the past year, according to new NHS figures.

The number of people who have contacted their doctor with the symptoms of mumps has reached 5,201 – at the same point in 2004 the figure was 2,595.

The disease is striking the 15-to-24 age group, whose resistance is weak because they missed out on the MMR vaccination programme against mumps, measles and rubella, which began in the late 1980s.

Mumps is often more severe in teenagers and adults. Older boys and men with the infection are at risk from orchitis, an inflammation of the testes, which in rare instances can result in infertility.

However, medical experts last night stressed that the rise in suspected cases was “highly unlikely” to lead to an outbreak of mumps among infants whose parents have opted not to have them inoculated with the MMR vaccine.

Only five children in Scotland under four have been seen by doctors this year after developing symptoms of mumps.

The uptake of the MMR slumped dramatically in the wake of now- discredited claims that the jab was responsible for a rise in autism among young children.

However, the latest figures show 89.5 per cent of infants have been given the jab.

Herd immunity – when a disease is largely wiped out because so few people are susceptible – is achieved with vaccination rates of about 90 to 95 per cent.

Dr Martin Donachy, the medical director of Health Protection Scotland, said last night there was only a “slight risk” that infants could become infected because of the rise in adolescent mumps.

Dr Donachy said: “The level of MMR uptake and the probability of these two groups mixing mean the risk is very small. While the current situation has slightly increased this risk, it’s highly unlikely that mumps will begin to spread in young children.”

The NHS also published figures yesterday which illustrated the rise in confirmed cases of mumps since 2003.

They showed mumps had risen more than 20-fold. Across all ages, the number of cases rose from 181 in 2003 to 3,595 the following year, mostly in the 15-to-24 age group.

The annual figures also showed an increase in childhood measles, from 162 cases in 2003 to 231 in 2004. Cases of rubella in the under- 15s increased from 112 to 204.

Among other infectious diseases, chickenpox among the under-15s went up 8 per cent, from 17,062 to 18,489 cases.

Tuberculosis figures showed a slight increase and food poisoning showed little change.

But confirmed cases of meningococcal infection – which have been falling since 1999 – rose from 117 to 147.

A Scottish Executive spokeswoman said: “MMR is the safest, most effective way to protect all children against the risks of measles, mumps and rubella. The uptake of the MMR vaccination remains at a higher level than in recent times. Almost nine out of ten parents are accepting MMR immunisation to protect their children from these three potentially serious diseases.”

The uptake of the MMR jab fell off after controversial research in 1998 claimed the triple vaccine was linked to autism. The findings were later discredited and research published last year in the Lancet concluded there was no evidence to support a link.