Mumps Cases Double in ’86 After 15 Years of Mostly Steady Decline

After 15 years of a largely steady decrease, the number of reported cases of mumps, the once-common bane of childhood, doubled in 1986 over the year before, federal health researchers reported Thursday.

Since 1968, the first year of mumps vaccine licensing in this country, reported cases of mumps fell from more than 152,000 to 2,982 in 1985, interrupted only by jumps in 1970-71, 1975 and a slight 329-case increase between 1981 and 1982, according to federal health researchers.

However, the national Centers for Disease Control said Thursday that the number of mumps cases reported shot up to 6,807 in 1986, more than double the total of the previous year. That number is the highest total since 8,576 cases were reported in 1980.

The increase was fueled by outbreaks in Illinois, with 2,743 cases, and Tennessee, with 1,174. Those two states, neither of which requires mumps shots for children attending school, accounted for more than half of the nation’s mumps, the CDC said.

No Mumps in Two States

In contrast to Illinois and Tennessee, two states--Maine and Wyoming--reported no mumps cases in 1986.

“The increased mumps activity was largely a result of illness in unvaccinated middle and high school students,” with 73% of all mumps cases occurring in school-age patients from 5 to 19 years old, the CDC said.

Mumps, which causes painful swellings in the neck, is usually a mild disease. But it can cause serious problems, including deafness, if the virus attacks other parts of the body.