An Outbreak of Mumps Meningitis Among Adolescents

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: We report sharp rise of incidence of mumps meningitis at our institute and describe the clinical manifestations, laboratory findings, and complications. METHODS: This is a retrospective study involving 34 patients with mumps meningitis at Eulji University Hospital from July 2012 to June 2014. They were diagnosed by definite parotid gland swelling and leukocytosis in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) study. RESULTS: Nineteen (55.9%) of the 34 patients with mumps meningitis were confirmed as positive by the mumps virus-specific immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody in serum or CSF and the remaining 15 patients (44.1%) were classified as probable cases. We identified 31 boys and 3 girls clearly showing male predominance. The median age of the patients was 15.8 years and all patients were in the middle school and high school age group. Sixteen patients (47.1%) had unilateral mumps and 29 patients (85.3%) were diagnosed with meningitis after parotid swelling. Six patients (17.6%) were accompanied by testicular involvement and one (2.9%) showed hearing loss. The positivity of mumps virus specific IgM was 17 of 34 (50.0%) in serum and 4 of 34 (11.8%) in CSF. The total duration of illness including hospitalization was 5 to 21 days, median being 11 days. There was no serious neurologic deficit but 5 of 34 (14.7%) complained dizziness after discharge. It caused delay in back-to-work. CONCLUSION: It is worthy to notice that recent outbreak of mumps among adolescents are more complicated. We need to be more aggressive about prevention of mumps outbreak which bring on substantial socioeconomic loss.