Mumps is a contagious disease. It is most common between the fourth and sixth years. Infants are rarely affected. The disease is not very contagious, direct contact being necessary to communicate it. Every case should be isolated for a period of three weeks from the beginning of the disease.
The seat of the affection is the parotid gland which is located in front of and on a level with the ear. One or both glands may be affected at the same time or one may follow the other in succumbing. The duration of the disease from the time the swelling becomes noticeable is about ten days. It is contagious for a week after the swelling subsides. The period of incubation is from one to three weeks.
Symptoms.—In the majority of cases the first symptom is the swelling and the discomfort which it causes. In more severe cases the child feels sick and is listless for from twenty-four to forty-eight hours. There may be a headache, vomiting, pains in the back and limbs, and fever. There is pain in the swelling which is increased by movement of the jaws and by pressure. The degree of the swelling varies with the severity of the attack. It may be very little or it may be so great as to completely distort, and render unrecognizable, the face. It must be remembered that, though mumps is not regarded as an important or dangerous disease, it may assume dangerous characteristics.
We sometimes see distressing complications with mumps. In boys, orchitis, or inflammation of the testicles, occasionally occur. In girls, ovaritis, or inflammation of the ovaries may be present. These complications may be avoided by keeping the patients in bed.
Treatment.—Keep the child in bed until the fever is gone. Keep him in the house for one week after the swelling has entirely subsided. He should be put on a liquid diet while the fever lasts. The bowels should move each day.
The mouth should be kept clean by an antiseptic mouth wash. If there is much pain in the swollen gland, warm, wet dressings give the best results. Sometimes it is advisable to paint the gland with belladonna ointment. If it is not very painful, the most comfortable way to dress the gland is simply to place over it a large pad of absorbent cotton held in place by a broad strip of flannel cloth.
CHICKEN POX. VARICELLA
Chicken pox is an affection almost entirely special to children, in whom it may be observed from their first year, although it is especially frequent from the ages of two to six. It appears often in the epidemical form and spreads by contagion.
Some doctors are inclined to regard varicella as a very attenuated form of smallpox, hence the name "chicken pox," by which it is popularly known. This opinion is based merely on the analogy between the two types of skin eruptions and the coincidence sometimes observed between two epidemics of smallpox and chicken pox. But the theory falls on considering that, on the one hand, chicken pox offers no safeguard against infection by smallpox and does not prevent the effects of vaccination, and, on the other hand the disease may occur in children who have been vaccinated or who have had smallpox. Chicken pox, too, differs essentially from smallpox in the course of its development.
After a period of incubation, extending over a fortnight, chicken pox becomes apparent by such symptoms as slight shivering, extreme fatigue and a general but not very intense condition of fever. In less than twenty-four hours small pink spots will appear on the skin, and these after a few hours are topped by a vesicle, and the next day the whole rash shows a vesiculous appearance.