Nearly 60 Chisinau residents were diagnosed with mumps on Monday

The Chisinau Emergency Service on Monday, February 18, recorded as many as 57 persons who got sick with mumps, mainly young persons in the age group 15-24. Eufalia Negreata, doctor coordinator at the Emergency Service, told Info-Prim Neo that the high incidence of the disease is caused by the loss of immunity in persons who received only one shot in childhood. According to her, as a rule, the mumps vaccine is received as two shots at the age of 1 and 7 years. Of the total number of young persons diagnosed with mumps, almost two-thirds received only one shot. There were cases where the disease recurred in persons who had contracted it in childhood. Today, the most efficient method of stopping the spread of the disease is to revaccinate children and the youth in the age group 13-23, the doctor said. Mumps spreads like the common cold, through coughs and sneezes, and infrequently, from shared surfaces where mucus particles could be left behind and picked up by another person. The most common symptoms are the inflammation of the saliva glands, fever and pain from swollen glands. If a person experiences these symptoms, a doctor must be urgently consulted in order to prevent complications that mumps can cause, Eufalia Negreata added. According to sources within the National Centre for Preventive Medicine, the incidence of mumps is expected to peak during March-April, and then in September.