How common are mumps?
Before the introduction of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine in 1988, mumps was a common childhood infection that was responsible for 1,200 hospital admissions a year in England and Wales. After the MMR vaccine was introduced as part of the routine childhood vaccination programme, the number of mumps cases fell sharply, with less than a 100 cases reported in 1996. However, in recent years, there has been an upsurge in the incidence of mumps, and in 2005, there was a mumps epidemic that resulted in over 43,000 cases in England and Wales. Most cases affected teenagers and young adults. It is thought that the recent mumps epidemic was due to people in this age group not receiving the MMR vaccination, but also not having a natural immunity to mumps due to not having previously been infected. Another contributory factor is that some parents have chosen not to let their child have the MMR vaccine.
