What does it mean when they say “suspected”, “probable” or “confirmed” cases of mumps?
A suspected case of mumps is one where a doctor says you have symptoms that may be mumps or has some other reason to believe that you may have mumps. A probable case is when the doctor has clinically diagnosed you (told you that with your symptoms you have mumps), but there is no laboratory results to confirm it or the laboratory results are negative. Negative laboratory results do not mean that you can’t have the disease; it just means that they did not find it at the time in the sample they had. A confirmed case is when you have been clinically diagnosed and the lab results are positive for mumps virus. Also, a probable case that was a close contact of another probable case or to a confirmed case is now considered a confirmed case. Back to the top.
