SEROEPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY OF MUMPS IN 74 CHILDREN 5 TO 10 YEARS OLD BY COMPLEMENT FIXATION

Abstract

Mumps is an acute contagious viral disease that usually manifests as inflam¬mation of the parotid glands. The disease may be associated with symptoms such as parotitis, orchitis and meningoencephalitis. 85% of cases occur in children under 15 years of age. The disease is rare below two years but increases with age, reaching a maximum at 5 to 9 years. Some studies in Iran showed that the highest susceptibility to the disease was in age groups of over 70, 0 to 9, and 10 to 19 years old. Therefore the elderly, children and teenagers are susceptible to the dis¬ease. In this study the susceptibility of 74 children between 5 to 10 years old to mumps was evaluated. The results showed that 5 and 6 year old children were the most susceptible group (p<0.05), and 10 year old children had the lowest suscep¬tibility. However, this study showed that there was antibody in %70 of the cases. Thus similar studies with larger samples may help us to achieve a suitable strat¬egy for prevention and eradication of this disease in our country.