The number of people contracting mumps in the North-East is steadily falling - despite the region having the fifth highest number of reported cases in the UK.

There were 578 reported cases of mumps across the country, compared with 331 in the last quarter of 2003, according to figures released by the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

Figures for the North-East show there were 59 reported cases over the same period. This compares with 74 cases between October and December last year, 148 between July and September and 180 between April and June.

Mumps has been branded as the new "kissing disease", with outbreaks most prevalent amongst people in their mid-twenties and thirties.

The HPA said that Wales had the largest outbreak of mumps in the UK with 119 cases, followed by the North West with 98, the West Midlands, 90, and the East Midlands, 64.

The North-East figures - the lowest for the past 15 months - buck the national trend, due to an uptake in vaccinations and a fall in the number of outbreaks.

Dr Nicol Black, consultant in communicable disease control for the HPA in the North-East, is encouraged by the region's figure.

"Numbers are definitely falling here in comparison to the rest of England and Wales.

"Last year in Newcastle, Northumberland and North Tyneside, for example, the number of cases of mumps reported was ten times the national average.

"This year already they are on line to be considerably lower."

The main reason for the high figures last year is down to a number of outbreaks across the region, including one at Carmel Technology College, in Darlington, in April.

Around 30 cases of mumps were confirmed and 150 students were given the MMR triple vaccination.

The incident followed a mild outbreak of mumps at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, in Darlington, where 560 pupils were vaccinated.

A spokesperson for the HPA said the number of young children having the MMR jab this year is also up on last year by two per cent, with 86.2 per cent of children aged two having been vaccinated.