Mumps, mumps vaccination, islet cell antibodies and the first manifestation of diabetes mellitus type I.

To connect mumps and diabetes mellitus in children is an old problem in medical literature. The typical occurrence of ICA at the onset of diabetes in children, as well as the incidence of ICA approximately 3 weeks after mumps infection support the hypothesis of a direct relationship between virus infection and diabetes. But the mumps infection alone is not the key factor. Mumps vaccination may not provide protection against diabetes mellitus, it may even provoke it. (Genetic determination, expressed by the HLA-phenotype in all the patients reported, does not allow a differentiation.)