SOARING levels of a highly contagious disease is making the North-East the worst hit in the country.

The number of cases of mumps in the North-East has increased five-fold in the past year.

Latest figures from the Health Protection Agency put the region at the top of the mumps league, with 1,148 cases last year, compared to 266 in 2002 and 87 in 2001.

The North-East had more than 900 more infections than London last year and accounted for more than a quarter of all cases in England and Wales.

Three weeks ago, 40 people, many of them students, were hit by an outbreak near York.

Newcastle's Royal Grammar School and Ponteland High School, in Northumberland, also experienced outbreaks last year that led to large-scale immunisation programmes for pupils.

Dr John Woodhouse, deputy regional director of public health in the North-East, said the number of outbreaks was a cause for concern.

"We do seem to have a specific problem at the moment in the North-East and there have been a number of schools in the area that have recently reported outbreaks, which is worrying.

"There doesn't seem to be a reason why there's been such a big increase in the region. It is not connected to anything we have or haven't done - it is just one of those things."

Mumps is a viral infection, which is spread in saliva and in minute airborne droplets from the coughs and sneezes of infected people.

Symptoms include painful and swollen glands in the cheeks, neck and under the jaw, as well as headaches, fever and abdominal pain.

It can lead to infertility in men, and deafness and nerve damage in younger children.

Said Dr Woodhouse: "The long-term solution to the mumps problem is to get MMR coverage to a high level. We need about 95 per cent of the population to be immunised against mumps for about 20 years in order never to see it again."