IT is revealed today that East Lancashire is fighting the biggest epidemic of mumps to hit Britain for years.

That's a worry - for as well as being an unpleasant childhood illness, mumps can do serious and lasting harm to the fertility of adult males who catch it.

But when this announcement comes with the admission from the region's public health chief that people could have been alerted a lot sooner, we must express our concern that the epidemic may have become even worse because they weren't.

The mea culpa that comes with today's disclosure by Dr Stephen Morton may be a refreshing instance of a public official accepting the buck when so many are inclined nowadays to pass it, but that may hardly soothe the symptoms or displeasure of the mumps' victims who have been caught unawares.

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