Your Health

Mumps – Diagnosis and Treatment

Mumps is a contagious illness that can pass from person to person through close contact, nasal secretions, and saliva. It mostly affects the parotid or salivary glands. The swelling of this organ is the most typical symptom. In addition, there are other signs like body aches, loss of appetite, headache, fatigue, or a low-grade fever. They end to occur within 2 weeks of exposure to the virus. This article lists some common diagnostic techniques and treatments for mumps.

Mumps Diagnosis

Antibody Tests

When the mumps virus enters the body, the immune system will produce antibodies to fight it. As a result, the condition can be diagnosed with an antibody test. This is a type of blood test that would find out the antibodies in the blood and find out whether you have an active infection or are immune to the condition. If the results suggest the presence of serum IgG antibodies in the blood, it might be a sign of vaccination or a previous infection. People with an active infection would have IgM antibodies in their test results. [1]