Successful interferon-alpha 2 a therapy for a patient with acute mumps orchitis.

Involvement of one or both gonads in postpuberty mumps is common and can often lead to infertility. Our report discusses the course of disease of a patient with acute mumps orchitis. Only 2 days after administration of interferon, clinical symptoms had drastically improved, and the infection subsided without any after-effects. We therefore recommend immediate interferon therapy, as soon as postpuberty mumps manifests, to prevent testicular atrophy and resulting infertility.