Incidence and Seasonal Pattern of Mumps Parotitis in a Paediatric Clinic, Nigeria

Background: Mumps parotitis, a contagious infection is of public health concern as it can be easily transmitted among cohorts of children in schools, day care centres and religious centres. Although it can be prevented with vaccination, the mumps vaccine is not yet available in the National Immunisation programme in Nigeria. Aims and Objective: The aim of the study is to determine the incidence of clinically diagnosed mumps parotitis in the Paediatric Outpatient Clinic (POPC) in our health facility and see if there is a seasonal pattern to this infection in our locality. Methods: A five-year retrospective study evaluated all clinical diagnosis of mumps parotitis obtained from the medical records of the POPC of the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital. Information obtained were the demographic characteristics of the children including date of making the diagnosis and data analyzed with SPSS version 23. Results: A total of 33,872 patients attended the POPC during the study period. The incidence of clinical mumps parotitis was 3/1000 study population. The infection was more prevalent among males (60.2%) than females and also among under five children (57.1%). The three highest incidence rates occurred in February, March and April and a four-fold increase in annual incidence in 2022. Conclusion: The incidence of mumps parotitis in this study although low, is more prevalent among under five children and the early parts of the year. This incidence can be further reduced by vaccinating under five children with the mumps vaccine in Nigeria.