Fourth NHL team reports case of mumps

This National Hockey League season has proven that the mumps are not just kids’ stuff.

With the announcement that Tanner Glass has the mumps, the New York Rangers became the fourth team to be connected to the condition.

Corey Perry and Francois Beauchemin of the Anaheim Ducks were diagnosed with the mumps earlier in the season. So was Keith Ballard of the Minnesota Wild. Ryan Suter of the Wild was ruled out of Wednesday’s game with Montreal while awaiting test results. Numerous reports also said that several unidentified players on the St. Louis Blues had symptoms.

Those symptoms include a swelling of glands in the neck, as well as signs normally associated with the flu: achiness and fatigue. Glass was sent home Friday from Philadelphia, where the Rangers were playing, with what were then described as “flu-like symptoms.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes the condition this way: “Mumps is a contagious disease that is caused by [a] virus. Mumps typically starts with a few days of fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness and loss of appetite, and is followed by swelling of salivary glands. Anyone who is not immune from either previous mumps infection or from vaccination can get mumps.”

The Johns Hopkins Medicine web site says that one of the symptoms is pain and tenderness of the testicles. Complications, which occur more frequently in adults, may include meningitis, an inflammation of the membrane that covers the brain and spinal cord, or orchitis, an inflammation of one or both testicles. Mumps can also cause deafness, among other things.

WebMD says the mumps virus can be spread through coughing or sneezing. The website added: “Surfaces of items can also spread the virus if someone who is sick touches them without washing the hands, and someone else then touches the same surface and rubs [their] eyes, mouth, nose, etc.”

Rangers spokesman John Rosasco said that everyone in the Rangers traveling party will receive a mumps vaccine “booster shot.” Coach Alain Vigneault also suggested that media members who covered the last game Glass played should be examined.