Mumps surveillance and epidemiology

Epidemiology

Mumps has been notifiable in England and Wales since October 1988, the same time as the introduction of the MMR vaccine.

Following a long period of low incidence in the 1990's the incidence of mumps rose in Wales from early 2003. The main group affected were teenagers and young adults born 1980-1991. Many of this group would never have been offered the two recommended doses of a mumps containing vaccine because MMR was only introduced in 1988, with a limited catch-up campaign. In addition the vaccine used during the 1994 schools catch-up campaign was the MR vaccine and did not contain a mumps component.

In October 2005, the national MMR catch-up campaign was announced in order to stem the increased transmission of mumps in Wales. During this campaign a total of 60,820 secondary school, college and university students were immunised against mumps using the MMR triple vaccine. Incidence of mumps in Wales declined sharply following 2005.

Increases in the number of notified and laboratory confirmed mumps cases in Wales were seen in 2009, 2013 and 2019.

Mumps in Wales

Chart showing the rate per 100,000 population and number of confirmed cases of mumps in Wales from 2000-2023

Rate per 100,000 population and number of confirmed cases of mumps in Wales from 2000-2023

Year	Number of cases	Rate per 100,000 population
2000	4	0.14
2001	7	0.24
2002	81	2.77
2003	455	15.49
2004	650	21.98
2005	3757	126.53
2006	292	9.78
2007	14	0.47
2008	55	1.82
2009	363	11.95
2010	85	2.79
2011	75	2.45
2012	88	2.86
2013	513	16.64
2014	326	10.54
2015	71	2.29
2016	34	1.09
2017	34	1.09
2018	30	0.96
2019	665	21.09
2020	531	16.75
2021	1	0.03
2022	0	0.00
2023	0	0.00

Confirmed cases of mumps in Wales by age 2014-2023

Year	<1	1-4	5-9	10-14	15-24	25-34	35-44	45-64	65+	All ages
2014	0	2	4	25	202	62	17	12	2	326
2015	0	2	2	6	48	9	4	0	0	71
2016	0	0	2	6	20	2	2	2	0	34
2017	0	0	1	0	25	7	0	1	0	34
2018	0	0	0	2	21	5	0	2	0	30
2019	2	0	4	8	483	104	33	29	2	665
2020	0	2	9	38	315	108	26	29	4	531
2021	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1
2022	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2023	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Confirmed cases of mumps in 2019-2023 by quarter of onset

Quarter	Number of cases in 2019	% of 2019 year total	Number of cases in 2020	% of 2020 year total	Number of cases in 2021	% of 2021 year total
Jan-Mar	28	4.2	527	99.2	0	0
Apr-Jun	175	26.3	4	0.8	0	0
Jul-Sep	108	16.2	0	0	1	100
Oct-Dec	354	53.2	0	0	0	0

Sources of surveillance data for Wales

Mumps is one of a number of notifiable diseases. Doctors in Wales have a statutory duty to notify a 'Proper Officer' of the Local Authority of suspected cases of mumps based on clinical symptoms, usually before diagnosis has been confirmed by laboratory testing. Notifications of mumps represent the most complete source of data for surveillance.

Salivary samples are requested from some patients in Wales (and England) with suspected mumps, and are sent to UKHSA in Colindale for confirmation of mumps infection.

These are the data that are used to produce the trends graph and accompanying data tables on this website.

Immunisation against mumps

Mumps can be prevented by a highly effective and safe vaccine. This is part of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) immunisation with a first dose at around 13 months and a second dose (booster) around three and a half years. Young adults and teenagers who have missed out on MMR vaccination as children are also encouraged to get immunised.

A complete course of the two doses will protect over 95% of children against measles, mumps and rubella.

The uptake of MMR (and other childhood) vaccination in Wales is recorded in the COVER (Coverage of Vaccination Evaluation Rapidly) report. This is published on both a quarterly and annual basis. Use the link below to access all COVER reports from 2003 to date.

More information about the MMR vaccine.