Microbiological Diagnosis of Mumps

Mumps virus infection is normally diagnosed by serologic testing. Identification of mumps-specific IgM antibodies in serum or plasma by enzyme immunoassay analysis (EIA) in samples taken during the acute phase is the most-widely used serologic test for the diagnosis of mumps, due to its simplicity, high sensitivity and specificity. When the infection cannot be confirmed by serologic tests, the diagnosis can be made by direct methods such as isolation of the virus in cell cultures or detection of the viral genome by molecular analysis This work describes these three methods: serologic testing, cell culture and gene amplification.