MUMPS is on the increase in Bolton, despite advice from doctors that young people should have the MMR jab.

In the first nine weeks of this year 22 people were diagnosed with mumps and there were 441 throughout Greater Manchester.

In the first nine weeks of last year, there were just two cases in Bolton.

Young people born between 1983 and 1990 are being advised to visit their doctors for the mumps, measles and rubella jab because they were not offered the jab when it was launched in 1991.

Last year, 70 cases of mumps were recorded in Bolton, compared to just 15 the year before.

Nationally, up to 1,300 cases of mumps are being notified every week. The number of confirmed cases in England and Wales in 2004 was 7,856, compared with just 3,907 confirmed cases in the four year period from 1999-2003.

Bolton Primary Care Trust's Communicable Disease Specialist Graham Munslow said: "This group is vulnerable to mumps because they did not receive two doses of MMR vaccine as children. I would urge them to see their doctor, and get the lifelong protection offered by immunisation."

Mumps is an infectious viral disease in which the salivary glands in the neck become swollen and painful. Symptoms include fever, headache, tenderness in one or both sides of the neck and running nose and eyes.

These can include a mild form of meningitis, ear infections, swelling of the testicles in adult men and inflammation of the ovaries and pancreatitis in women.