MUMPS ANTIBODY, IGG

LAB160

7 mL Red Top Tube

2.0  mL

Refrigerate specimen

Set Up:Tuesday and Thursday

1 day

Positive (Immune)

Mumps is an acute, generally self-limiting, contagious disease with moderate fever of short duration. Bilateral or unilateral parotitis is the most common clinical feature. Secondary involvement concerns the testes, ovaries, central nervous system and, more rarely, the pancreas, peripheral nerves, eyes, inner ear, and other organs.  The incubation period for Mumps virus ranges between 18 and 21 days. Droplets via the upper respiratory route spread infections.  Between 25 and 50 % of all infections are silent. Immunity after infections appears to be lifelong, however, silent re-infections may occur although it is probably an infrequent event. An attenuated live virus vaccine is available which induces lower levels of measurable antibody than natural infection. Only one distinct antigenic type of Mumps virus is known. Some antigenic cross reactivity and anamnestic antibody responses exist with other paramyxoviruses, particularly Parainfluenza Type 1, in some serological tests.   The traditional assays of viral neutralization, hemagglutination inhibition (HI) and complement fixation (CF) all have the drawbacks of either being too cumbersome for routine work or have shortcomings with regard to sensitivity and reliability. Both CF and HI suffer from a relatively low sensitivity and cross-reacting antibodies to other paramyxoviruses may pose a problem. Both immunofluorescence (IFA) and ELISA test have the advantages of being sensitive and capable of allowing the separate identification of IgG and IgM viral antibodies to bother determination of immune status and diagnosis of acute infection.