Abstract:

Introduction: Mumps is an acute, self-limiting and systemic disease caused by paramyxovirus which affects only human being and is easily preventable by a vaccine. Despite the disease being common in different countries, there is scarcity of information on the burden of mumps in Africa. In Africa, seroprevalence of mumps has been documented to range from 9% in South Africa to 22% in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) among children aged below 5 years. In Tanzania seroprevalence of mumps was reported to be 21.4%(IgG antibodies) and 0.23%(IgM antibodies) among school aged children in Mwanza, 16.7% among children with deafness in Buguruni,Dar es Salaam and 88% among unvaccinated children attending regional referral hospital in Dar es Salaam. This signifies the need of conducting more studies to generate data that might be useful in effort to control the disease. This study aimed at determining the prevalence and associated factors of mumps antibodies among different communities in Mwanza, Tanzania.

Methodology: A laboratory based cross sectional study was conducted from July to August 2022, involving 276 archived sera collected from Misungwi, Ukerewe and Magu districts. Socio-demographic information and other relevant information were extracted from previous data base. Indirect Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) (Vircell, S.L. Parque Technologico de la Salud, Avicena 8, Spain) kit was used to detect mumps IgG antibody. IBM SPSS version 23 was used for data analysis.

Results: Overall, 276 achieved sera were analyzed in the study with the median age of 36(Interquartile range (IQR):1-89) years. Majority of them were from female 168(60.0%). The seropositivity of mumps IgG antibodies was found to be 94.93%. None of the factors was found to be associated with mumps IgG seropositivity in Mwanza communities.

Conclusion: In Mwanza region mumps IgG seropositivity is alarmingly high which suggest that mumps virus is common and might be associated with adverse outcomes in Mwanza communities. Therefore, there is a need to conduct more studies on the magnitude and epidemiology of mumps infection across the country to have evidence –based control interventions that will aid at introducing mumps vaccination program in Tanzania.