Explore the recorded discovery and history of Mumps orthorubulavirus, with source links and stated limits.
Mumps is caused by a virus that infects the salivary glands and spreads through saliva or respiratory droplets. CDC describes puffy cheeks and a tender, swollen jaw as its best-known sign, with most people recovering completely within two weeks. Vaccinated people can still get mumps, usually with milder symptoms and fewer complications.
CDC's Pink Book records that Claud Johnson and Ernest Goodpasture showed in 1934 that mumps could be transmitted to rhesus monkeys by a filterable agent in saliva, shown to be a virus in 1935. Parotitis and orchitis had been described by Hippocrates in the 5th century BCE.
A mumps vaccine was introduced in the United States in 1967; in 1971 it was licensed as part of the combined MMR vaccine.
After two MMR doses were recommended for school-age children in 1989, reported mumps cases declined from about 5,700 in 1989 to fewer than 300 in 2004.
Mumps parotitis was described in antiquity, and the 1934 work identified a transmissible agent rather than a first patient. No first human case or country of origin is established by these references.
Source check: 2026-09-19. Educational content; independent scientific review remains pending.