It is a contagious disease caused by a virus. It typically starts with a few days of fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness, and loss of appetite, followed by swollen salivary glands.
Mumps. Mumps is a highly contagious infection spread by a paramyxovirus. The virus can travel in the air through coughs and sneezes, it may be on surfaces people touch, such as door handles or it can be picked-up from cups, cutlery, bowls or plates. Mumps symptoms. Mumps is most contagious usually before symptoms are noticed. Mumps has an incubation period of 7-18 days, but on average is around 10 days after exposure. Mumps is a contagious illness caused by a virus that can result in fever and swelling of the neck. During the prevaccine era, nearly everyone in the United States experienced it, and 90 percent of cases occurred among children under 15 years of age. When a person becomes infected with the mumps virus, it begins to multiply within the nose, throat, and lymph glands in the neck. The virus can also enter the blood and spread to other parts of the body. After 16 to 18 days, on average, symptoms can appear. Mumps is a contagious viral infection that can cause painful swelling of the salivary glands, especially the parotid glands (between the ear and the jaw). Some people with mumps won't have gland swelling. They may feel like they have a bad cold or the flu instead. Mumps usually goes away on its own in about 10 days. Some people who are infected with the mumps virus don't have any symptoms. If you have more serious symptoms, such as a stiff neck or a severe headache, painful testicles, or severe belly pain, call your doctor right away. A person infected with mumps can spread the virus to a non-infected person from approximately 3 days before symptoms appear, to 5 days after swelling of the salivary glands. Return to Top. Painful, swollen testicles can develop in males who have reached puberty and painful, swollen breasts can develop in women. Aseptic meningitis (infection of the covering of the brain and spinal cord) can occur. Some people who get mumps have very mild, or no symptoms. Mumps illness is usually not serious. Severe complications are rare. However, mumps can sometimes lead to inflammation of the ovaries (oophoritis), miscarriage in early pregnancy, and very rarely to deafness or inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) Mumps is a contagious disease caused by a virus. It typically starts with a few days of fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness, and loss of appetite, followed by swollen salivary glands. You can protect yourself and your family against mumps with vaccination. Mumps is no longer very common in the United States, but outbreaks continue to occur. Outbreaks have most commonly occurred in places where people have had prolonged, close contact with a person who has mumps, such as attending the same class, playing on the same sports team, or living in the same dormitory. Mumps is a contagious viral infection that used to be common in children before the introduction of the MMR vaccine. It’s most recognisable by the painful swellings at the side of the face under the ears (the parotid glands), giving a person with mumps a distinctive hamster face appearance.  Mumps. Some people infected with the mumps virus have either no signs or symptoms or very mild ones. When signs and symptoms do develop, they usually appear about two to three weeks after exposure to the virus and may include: 1  Swollen, painful salivary glands on one or both sides of your face (parotitis). 2  Fever. 3  Headache A person with mumps is contagious anytime from about three days prior to the onset of the swelling of the salivary glands (called parotitis) to nine days after the onset. A person can spread the disease if he or she becomes infected with the virus, even if symptoms never develop. 
http://www.webmd.boots.com/children/guide/mumps http://mumps.emedtv.com/mumps/mumps.html http://www.webmd.com/children/tc/mumps-topic-overview http://healthvermont.gov/prevent/mumps/mumps.aspx http://www.cdc.gov/mumps/index.html http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Mumps/Pages/Introduction.aspx http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/mumps/basics/symptoms/CON-20019914 http://mumps.emedtv.com/mumps/mumps-p2.html
mumps contagious