In December 2014 the NHL was plunged into chaos due to the spread of mumps among players and staff. The outbreak struck some of Hockey’s top players and caused a review of the infectious disease prevention guidelines that are in place in the NHL.
It is over two months ago that Keith Ballard of the Minnesota Wild displayed mumps-like symptoms and had to sit out a game. The Anaheim Ducks then reported that several players appeared to have contracted the viral infection which is usually thought of as a childhood disease.
Mumps is spread by coughing and sneezing—perfect for breeding in the close knit sporting arena—and it affects the salivary glands, causing painful swelling of the face below the ears. Although serious complications are rare, there are some reports of infertility resulting from the infection in adults.
Prior to Christmas, the teams reporting infection included the Ducks, Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers, Minnesota Wild, and New Jersey Devils. It was an unprecedented outbreak which had both the NHL and other sports organizations such as the NBA and NFL scrabbling to check that their own guidelines and procedures were in order in case of a similar outbreak.
The baffling thing about the mumps outbreak was that only the NHL appeared to be affected.
In Pittsburgh, for example, Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby along with Olli Maatta, Beau Bennett and Thomas Greiss were just a few of the affected players—but the disease did not appear to spread outside of the confines of the Penguins organization.
Speaking to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Donald Burke, an infectious disease-trained specialist and member of the Allegheny county health board, admitted that the experts were stumped as to why:
“[It] doesn’t make a whole lot of epidemiological sense to have such a confined outbreak in what is an adult population of a disease that is normally a childhood disease that is vaccine-preventable,” he said.
Present guidelines are for teams to quarantine players for at least five days after the first appearance of symptoms and to administer vaccines to players and staff. The difficulty being that an infected person is already contagious for a few days before outward symptoms become apparent.
Despite the outbreak of illness, called an “unwanted disruption” by NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, crowd numbers are healthy but you can find sold out tickets here. Support and education has been provided to the NHL’s member teams with a view to containing and limiting the spread of mumps while still continuing with its busy schedule.
As the NHL cannot call itself truly clear until 50 days have passed since the last reported incident, and the turn of the year showing a slowdown in the number reported cases, there is a little way to go yet.