You're playing basketball and you collide with an overheated opponent, whose sweat sprays over your body like a sudden spring shower. Later you learn that the athlete is HlV-positive. Are you at risk?

Or, you're playing soccer, and one of your teammates clears his throat and spits into the wind. Unfortunately, you're downwind, and the globule of sputum strikes you full in the face. Later, your mate tests positive for HIV. Should you be worried?

In fact, when should you be concerned about HIV as you participate in your sports activities? Which sports are 'riskiest,' in terms of the spread of HIV? What steps can you take to reduce your risk of picking up the deadly virus?

First of all, you should remember that HIV does not grow or live in human sweat. Therefore, even a liberal sprinkling of sweat from an HlV-positive athlete can not increase your risk. Likewise, sitting on a sweaty bicycle seat or doing sit-ups or bench presses on a sweat-stained bench does not mean that you should head to your local lab for an HIV test.

It is true that HIV can be present in tears and saliva, but there are no documented cases of HIV being spread in this way. Basically, to pick up an HIV infection from saliva, an HlV-positive athlete would need to spit directly into an open wound on your body, and even then there might not be enough HIV particles in his liquids to produce an infection in you.

That means that the real risk of AIDS comes from the transmission of blood during sports activities. Amazingly enough, despite the widespread fear concerning HIV contagion during sports, there is only one actual 'case' reported in the scientific literature, and this case has now been debunked. In an Italian league soccer game, an HlV-positive athlete bumped heads with a seemingly healthy player. Cuts appeared on each player's forehead, and blood spurted forth. The supposedly healthy individual became HlV-positive two months after the contest, but there's no strong evidence that the incident on the soccer pitch was the source of the infection. The player may have picked up the virus well before the collision occurred.

As yet, there is no documented case of HIV transmission from athlete to athlete during professional American football, even though there are about four bleeding injuries per game. Likewise, other bloody sports, such as boxing, wrestling, and ice hockey, have not been linked with documented cases of HIV transmission. It's true that in the non-sporting arena, HIV has been transmitted as the result of bloody fistfights and after blood contact between relatives living in the same house. However, the risk of spread during sports is very low. In fact, the risk of HIV transmission during the sport most likely to be linked with its dispersal - American football - is estimated to be less than one in one million.

It's true that bodybuilders may transmit HIV when they use needles in common to inject steroids. However, even then the risk is fairly low: experts contend that HIV is transmitted only .3 per cent of the time after needlestick exposure. In comparison, hepatitis B is up to 100 times easier to acquire from a 'dirty' needle.

In the non-sports arena, health experts have documented 2700 cases in which blood splashed from an HlV-positive person on to the skin of a normal person. In none of these cases did the normal person go on to become HlV-positive. Similarly, there are only four documented cases in which a person became HlV-positive after large quantities of HlV-containing blood splashed into his eyes, mouth, or broken skin. This kind of situation - ample quantities of blood spilling into an athlete's eyes, mouth, or wounds - is extremely rare in sports, suggesting that the real risk of HIV transmission during sports activities is close to zero.

Still, to reduce your risk of picking up HIV as much as possible, you can (1) wear protective gloves while you participate in your sport so that you don't actually touch or wipe up other athlete's body fluids, (2) cover all skin wounds, including scratches, abrasions, and lacerations, (3) cleanse your skin immediately after contact with another athlete's blood or saliva, (4) make sure that other athletes change out of bloody uniforms or equipment, (5) disinfect any surfaces or equipment which has come into contact with blood with a V100 dilution of household bleach (1 cup of bleach per four gallons of water), made fresh daily, and (6) launder all bloody uniforms after each practice or game. In addition, don't share needles, razors, earrings, or even toothbrushes with other athletes, and utilise condoms - preferably off the field - during sexual activity. The good news is that the risk of HIV transmission during sports is extremely low - and even lower when precautionary steps are taken.

(Eichner, E. Randy, M.D., 'Contagious Infections in Competitive Sports,' Sports Science Exchange, vol. 8 (3), 1995)



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