How important are vaccinations? At times, some people don’t realize how essential vaccines are until they get a disease that could have easily been prevented had they received the shots. This was the case for an Alaskan woman, as the Associated Press staff reports for The Sun Herald.
The woman diagnosed with mumps had just returned from a trip to Japan, where she had chaperoned students. During the trip June 6 to 26, she stayed with a host family in which a girl had been diagnosed with mumps five days before the group left.
The woman told health officials she thought she had received the mumps, measles and rubella vaccination as a child. She did not have a record of the vaccination.
No one else on the trip were affected.
Mumps is caused by the virus paramyxovirus, which can easily travel in the air through an infected person’s cough or sneeze. Once a person is infected, symptoms develop within 14 to 25 days from the day of contact. The swelling of parotid glands is the most common indication of mumps. Other symptoms include headaches, a dry mouth, joint pain, and fever. These symptoms usually go away on their own, but to ensure that mumps don’t lead to complications, a consultation with Eagle River urgent care doctors is recommended.
The complications that may arise from the disease are actually the alarming thing about mumps. For instance, among males, mumps could cause testicle pain, while in females, mumps could bring abdominal pain. These complications can be treated with over-the-counter painkillers like ibuprofen or paracetamol, but patients are recommended to check with their doctors first regarding proper dosage.
Mumps could also lead to worse complications. If patients experience symptoms like jaundice, belly pain, vomiting, and diarrhea, it’s best for them to visit Eagle River, AK urgent care doctors, preferably those adept in internal medicine.
During an examination, internists or physicians would diagnose patients and determine if they have acute pancreatitis through a physical exam, blood test, abdominal ultrasound, and/or endoscopic ultrasound. If the condition is confirmed, a treatment program would then be administered. Extreme cases, though, would require hospital confinement.
Mumps is generally not a life-threatening disease. However, the condition can cause complications that will require the care of reliable urgent care physicians like the ones from Primary Care Associates. Doctors can also inform patients of important vaccinations that they have yet to receive.
(Source: Health officials confirm Alaska mumps case, sunherald.com, September 8, 2014)
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