What is the Difference Between Measles and Mumps

The key difference between measles and mumps is that measles is a viral disease caused by Measles morbillivirus while mumps is a viral disease caused by Mumps orthorubulavirus.

Measles and mumps are two viral diseases that are highly contagious in nature. The causative agents of both viral diseases belong to the same family: Paramyxoviridae. Their symptoms are similar, but their long time effects are opposite. Both diseases are very common in young children. Moreover, measles and mumps are treated through the same vaccine known as the MMR vaccine. The MMR is a vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella (German measles).

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Measles
3. What is Mumps
4. Similarities – Measles and Mumps
5. Measles vs Mumps in Tabular Form
6. Summary – Measles vs Mumps

What is Measles?

Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by Measles morbillivirus. The symptoms of this disease usually develop within 10 to 12 days after infection, and symptoms last for 7 to 10 days. The initial symptoms normally include fever, cough, runny nose, inflamed eyes, and small white spots known as Koplik’s spots inside the mouth. Later, a flat red rash spreads throughout the body, generally beginning from three to five days. The common complications of this disease include diarrhoea, middle ear infection, and pneumonia. The complications are mainly due to measles-induced immunosuppression. The less common complications include seizures, blindness, or inflammation of the brain. Measles is an airborne disease that spreads easily from one person to the next through the coughs and sneezes of infected people. Moreover, it can also spread through direct contact with mouth and nasal secretions.

The diagnosis of measles is through the detection of measles-specific IgM antibodies in serum and measles RNA by RT-PCR technique. Furthermore, the treatments include post-exposure vaccination, immune serum globulin, fever reducers (acetaminophen), antibiotics, and vitamin A.

What is Mumps?

Mumps is a viral disease caused by Mumps orthorubulavirus. The initial symptoms of mumps include specific and nonspecific fever, headache, malaise, muscle pain, and loss of appetite. These symptoms are normally followed by painful swelling of the parotid glands. The symptoms usually occur between 16 to 18 days after exposure to the mumps virus. Moreover, one-third of the infected people are asymptomatic. Complications of mumps infection include deafness, inflammation of the testes, breast, ovaries, pancreas, and meninges. Testicular inflammation can result in reduced fertility and cause sterility in rare cases.

The diagnosis of mumps can be made through antibody testing (enzyme-linked immune assay (ELISA), complement fixation test, hemaglutination test, neutralization test), viral cultures, and RT –PCR test (viral RNA detection). Furthermore, the treatment for mumps includes getting plenty of bed rest and fluids, using pain killers (ibuprofen and paracetamol), warm or cold compress to ease swollen glands, avoiding food that requires lots of chewing, and avoiding sour food and vaccination (MMR vaccine).

What are the Similarities Between Measles and Mumps?

• Measles and mumps are two viral diseases.
• Both viral diseases are highly contagious in nature.
• The causative agents of both viral diseases belong to the same family Paramyxoviridae.
• The causative agents of both viral diseases have single-stranded RNA.
• They can be treated through the same vaccine known as the MMR vaccine.

What is the Difference Between Measles and Mumps?

Measles is a viral disease caused by a viral species known as Measles morbillivirus while mumps is a viral disease caused by a viral species known as Mumps orthorubulavirus. This is the key difference between measles and mumps. Furthermore, measles spreads through coughing, sneezing, breathing contaminated air, and touching the infected surfaces, while mumps spread through saliva, respiratory droplets from the mouth, nose, throat, sharing items, and participating in close contact activities.

The following table summarizes the difference between measles and mumps.

Summary – Measles vs Mumps

Measles and mumps are two viral diseases caused by the viruses belonging to the family Paramyxoviridae. The causative agent of measles is Measles morbillivirus, while the causative agent of mumps is Mumps orthorubulavirus. High fever and white spots inside the mouth, and red rash are the main symptoms of measles, while swollen and tender salivary glands under both ears are one of the main symptoms of mumps. This summarizes the difference between measles and mumps.

Reference:

1. “Measles.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research.
2. “Mumps.” NHS Choices, NHS.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Back of female with measles Wellcome L0032962” By Welcome Images (CC BY 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Mumps PHIL 130 lores” (Public Domain) via Picryl