Alaska health officials have confirmed the first case of mumps in the state since 1995.
The disease was confirmed in a 50-year-old Alaska woman who apparently contracted mumps in Japan.
Fewer than 500 people in the nation contract mumps annually.
Mumps is a communicable virus but preventable by vaccine. Complications can cause meningitis, encephalitis and deafness.
The woman on July 11 told doctors she had headache, jaw pain and trismus, a symptom that can mean jaw muscle spasms or locking.
The woman while in Japan stayed in a home where a girl had been diagnosed with mumps.
The Alaska Section of Epidemiology says the woman’s symptoms began to subside about a week after she reported them.
