Vaccines and Preventable Diseases:
Mumps Case Definition and Case Classification
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Clinical Case Definition
An illness with acute onset of unilateral or bilateral tender, self-limited swelling of the parotid or other salivary gland(s), lasting at least 2 days, and without other apparent cause.
Clinically Compatible Illness
Infection with mumps virus may present as aseptic meningitis, encephalitis, hearing loss, orchitis, oophoritis, parotitis or other salivary gland swelling, mastitis or pancreatitis.
Laboratory Criteria for Diagnosis
- Isolation of mumps virus from clinical specimen, or
- Detection of mumps nucleic acid (e.g., standard or real time RT-PCR assays), or
- Detection of mumps IgM antibody, or
- Demonstration of specific mumps antibody response in absence of recent vaccination, either a four-fold increase in IgG titer as measured by quantitative assays, or a seroconversion from negative to positive using a standard serologic assay of paired acute and convalescent serum specimens.
Case Classification
Suspected: A case with clinically compatible illness or that meets the clinical case definition without laboratory testing or a case with laboratory tests suggestive of mumps without clinical information.
Probable: A case that meets the clinical case definition without laboratory confirmation and is epidemiologically linked to a clinically compatible case.
Confirmed: A case that: 1) meets the clinical case definition or has clinically compatible illness, and 2) is either laboratory confirmed or is epidemiologically linked to a confirmed case.
Case Classification for Import Status
Internationally imported case: An internationally imported case is defined as a case in which mumps results from exposure to mumps virus outside the United States as evidenced by at least some of the exposure period (12–25 days before onset of parotitis or other mumps-associated complications) occurring outside the United States and the onset of parotitis or other mumps-associated complications within 25 days of entering the United States and no known exposure to mumps in the United States during that time. All other cases are considered U.S.-acquired cases.
U.S.-acquired case: A U.S.-acquired case is defined as a case in which the patient had not been outside the United States during the 25 days before onset of parotitis or other mumps-associated complications or was known to have been exposed to mumps within the United States.
U.S.-acquired cases are
ub-classified into four mutually exclusive groups:
Note: Internationally imported, import-linked, and imported-virus cases are considered collectively to be import-associated cases.Import-linked case: Any case in a chain of transmission that is epidemiologically linked to an internationally imported case.
Imported-virus case: A case for which an epidemiologic link to an internationally imported case was not identified but for which viral genetic evidence indicates an imported mumps genotype, i.e., a genotype that is not occurring within the United States in a pattern indicative of endemic transmission. An endemic genotype is the genotype of any mumps virus that occurs in an endemic chain of transmission (i.e., lasting ≥12 months). Any genotype that is found repeatedly in U.S.-acquired cases should be thoroughly investigated as a potential endemic genotype, especially if the cases are closely related in time or location.Endemic case: A case for which epidemiological or virological evidence indicates an endemic chain of transmission. Endemic transmission is defined as a chain of mumps virus transmission continuous for ≥12 months within the United States.
Unknown source case: A case for which an epidemiological or virological link to importation or to endemic transmission within the United States cannot be established after a thorough investigation. These cases must be carefully assessed epidemiologically to assure that they do not represent a sustained U.S.-acquired chain of transmission or an endemic chain of transmission within the United States.
Comment
With previous contact with mumps virus either through vaccination (particularly with 2 doses) or natural infection, serum mumps IgM test results may be negative; IgG test results may be positive at initial blood draw and viral detection in RT-PCR or culture may have low yield. Therefore, mumps cases should not be ruled out by negative laboratory results. Serologic tests should be interpreted with caution, as false positive and false negative results are possible with IgM tests.
Currently, there is insufficient information to determine whether any mumps strains are endemic to the United States or to distinguish endemic from non-endemic strains. States may also choose to classify cases as “out-of-state-imported” when imported from another state in the United States. For national reporting, however, cases will be classified as either internationally imported or U.S.-acquired.
Additional Information
- Previous Case Definitions
- Information on mumps surveillance is available in the Manual for the Surveillance of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases, 4th Edition, 2008
Return to Mumps Outbreaks page
Content last reviewed on September 16, 2008
Content Source: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
