How long do people with mumps need to be isolated?

Children who are at school and have mumps will be asked to stay at home in isolation to prevent the disease from spreading to other children. Under normal circumstances, the incubation period of this disease is 15-18 days, and the onset period is about 10 days, so children need to be isolated for 10 days.

The isolation period is: the patient is isolated until the mumps swelling disappears completely or 10 days after the onset of the disease.

1. Mumps is an acute respiratory infectious disease caused by mumps virus. Mumps mainly occurs in children and adolescents, most commonly in patients aged 5-15 years old. It rarely occurs in people under 2 years old and over 40 years old.

2. Mumps occurs more frequently in winter and spring, especially in spring. However, epidemics of infection can occur throughout the year, often breaking out in schools and kindergartens.

3. The incubation period of this disease is 14 to 21 days, with an average of 18 days. After being infected with mumps, the disease occurs about half a month later. The disease has an acute onset and a short prodromal period with symptoms such as chills, fatigue, and loss of appetite. This period lasts for several hours to two days, after which the parotid gland begins to swell, accompanied by systemic symptoms such as fever, headache, and loss of appetite. The main symptoms of patients include fever, headache, chills, sore throat, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and general discomfort, which usually reach a peak in about three days. At the peak, the parotid glands swell on one or both sides, and the swelling gradually expands from the earlobe to the surrounding area, causing local pain and allergies. The swelling and pain are more obvious when eating dry, hard or acidic foods that cause a large amount of saliva secretion. The whole process of parotid swelling takes about 7 to 12 days. It can affect eating. In severe cases, the disease can cause meningitis, encephalitis, paralysis and epilepsy. If the mumps virus is infected after puberty, it may also be accompanied by oophoritis or orchitis, and may cause infertility in adulthood.

4. People are generally susceptible to the mumps virus. After one infection, they can acquire lasting immunity and there are very few people who are infected a second time.

The editor reminds that since the spread of mumps is not as strong as other respiratory infectious diseases such as influenza, its clinical manifestations are milder and the mortality rate is low, it often does not attract people's attention. Therefore, after the first case of mumps occurred, an epidemic occurred due to the lack of active prevention and control measures. Controlling the spread of mumps requires joint efforts from health departments, schools, parents and society.