Chicken pox outbreak hits Kansas City Royals
Two Kansas City Royals players have come down with the chicken pox and their teammates are being monitored for signs of the infection, team officials announced on Tuesday.
All-Star relief pitcher Kelvin Herrera and right fielder Alex Rios were sent home after being diagnosed over the weekend and will most likely miss a couple of weeks' worth of games. Trainers have asked other members of the team whether they ever had the chicken pox or have been vaccinated. Those who have not are getting immunized.
While chicken pox -- a disease characterized by an itchy rash that normally progresses to red bumps and fluid-filled blisters -- is traditionally thought of as a childhood illness, adults who did not get the infection as kids and who have not received a vaccination are also susceptible. The disease affects adults differently than children, with adults more likely to have serious complications like pneumonia or infections such as staph, which in some cases can be deadly.
"It can be more severe in adults, but it's especially a concern for pregnant women," Dr. Steven Gordon, chairman of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Cleveland Clinic, told CBS News. "The fatality rate can be quite high."
People with a weakened immune systems are also at a greater risk of complications.
The chicken pox vaccine became available in 1996 and today more than 90 percent of children in the U.S. are immunized against the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Each year, an estimated 3.5 million cases in the United States are prevented.
But adults who never had the chicken pox as a child may not know that they should get vaccinated, leaving them at risk.
Additionally, people raised in Latin America who live in the U.S. as adults -- like the two Royals players affected -- are thought to be more at risk. "People coming from Latin America or other parts of the world where there might be a higher percentage of adults who have not been exposed, that puts them at a higher risk when they come here," Gordon said. Rios grew up in Puerto Rico, and Herrera grew up in the Dominican Republic.
Chicken pox is spread through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes, or by touching or breathing in virus particles from chicken pox blisters. A person with chicken pox is contagious from one or two days before they get the rash. It takes 10 to 21 days after exposure to the virus for someone to develop the illness, so other players on the team will continue to be monitored.
CBS Sports reports that the team sent Rios home on a private plane Sunday to avoid exposing others.
But with the precautions taken, the Royals, who are currently leading the American League Central division and preparing for the postseason, remain hopeful. "Every day that passes by, you feel a little more secure that we're going to be OK," General Manager Dayton Moore told the Kansas City Star.
Gordon also said that Herrera and Rios are likely to recover without complications.
"I don't know these players personally, but I presume they are pretty healthy and assume they will recover without incidents," he said. "I suspect both players will be in the playoffs."
