YOUR AD HERE »

Letter: Mumps: An insidious disease

On Saturday, both Aspen newspapers reported an outbreak of mumps within our school district. Consequences from mumps may cause permanent hearing loss as well as sterility in males. Unfortunately, residual symptoms may not appear until much later.

Mumps is not a benign disease. I personally had contact with this disease around age 3, and its effect was not recognized until more than five years later — a school nurse discovered my unknown “disability.”

The permanent damage from mumps had caused complete loss of hearing in my right ear, referred to as “nerve deafness” — wherein a hearing aid is ineffective.



Apparently, mumps can cause sterility in boys, an unfortunate consequence that is undetectable until he wishes to father children. Mumps does permanent damage with far-reaching health issues.

Please consider vaccinating your children (and perhaps yourself), as this disease is not something to take lightly.




Gail Price

Aspen