Blake Flovin, a senior at Archbishop Mitty High in San Jose, says he was diagnosed with herpes gladiatorum, caused by the herpes virus, after wrestling at the Central Coast Section tournament at Independence High School in San Jose Feb. 20-21.
Flovin's face is covered with lesions, and he's concerned he may have infected others he wrestled at that San Jose tourney and at a subsequent event, and that some of these other wrestlers may be competing at the 2016 California Interscholastic Federation championships this weekend in Bakersfield.
Robert Powell, the Flovin family attorney, told the San Jose Mercury-News Wednesday, "I'm not asking them to shut it down forever, but it absolutely needs to be delayed to allow for the incubation period to pass with all the wrestlers Blake wrestled with."
CIF officials said they won't cancel the tournament in Bakersfield, insisting they follow rigid national safety protocols to protect wrestlers from infections and viruses like herpes gladiatorum, which is spread mostly through red skin lesions. All wrestlers undergo skin checks before the tournament and any athlete with an active infection won't be allowed to compete. The organization added that doctors will be on site during the state wrestling championships.
"We've had many times where our doctors have removed an athlete who was showing symptoms or some sort of skin lesion. This is something we deal with on a regular basis," said the organization's senior director Brian Seymour, who is also tournament director in Bakersfield this weekend. "We follow protocol to the letter of the law."
The federation's spokeswoman Rebecca Brutlag acknowledged, however, that "nothing is foolproof."
Central Coast Section chairman Duane Morgan, who ran the tournament at Independence High, contacted all the coaches of athletes on Tuesday who wrestled Flovin, alerting them to the exposure.
In an article at WebMD.com titled "Herpes gladiatorum is common among wrestlers", the medical website states, "Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) acquired during wrestling is one of the most common infections caused by personal contact during athletic activity… Physicians say the condition, called herpes gladiatorum, causes skin lesions on the head, neck, and shoulders that are often misdiagnosed."
"Skin contact is the primary mode of HSV-1 transmission," Mark Dworkin, MD, told WebMD. "In wrestling, the head and neck are major points of contact, and over 90% of the lesions we observed erupted in this area."
Sports medicine experts say wrestlers with active lesions should be temporarily excluded from participating in wrestling events.
"Even though its common sense for an infectious athlete to sit out, sometimes there's pressure on high school kids to continue," Guy Nicolette, MD, the varsity team physician and clinical assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Florida in Gainesville, told WebMD.com. "Some are afraid of losing a scholarship. Others are afraid of losing the respect of their coach. That's a lot to handle during adolescence."
Herpes gladiatorum is prevalent enough in the sport that in 2007 the National Federation of State High Schools Associations published a position statement on the disease and its effect on wrestlers in particular, saying that "in recent years, control of skin infections has become a crucial part of high school wrestling."
The Flovin family has alleged lax health and safety protocols in high school wrestling, particularly at the tournament nearly two weeks ago at Independence High.
"The rules and the swiftness in the way they deal with skin issues in wrestling is flawed and kids and coaches try to skirt around the issues," Blake Flovin told KGO-TV, the ABC affiliate in San Francisco.
"It's widespread to hide the disease because of scholarships at stake," said Blake's father Rick Flovin, who is assistant wrestling coach at Mitty High and is trained as an EMT. He says he helped institute at the school some of the strictest hygiene standards in the sport, including requiring wrestlers to step in a pan of disinfectant before they step on a mat. That safety measure was not in place at Independence High, he said.
Update: The 2016 CIF Wrestling Championships are taking place this weekend as originally scheduled.
"After a thorough medical review of this situation, we have concluded that this week's CIF State Boys Wrestling Championships will proceed as scheduled for March 4-5, at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield," said CIF executive director Roger Blake.
"With regard to California high school wrestling championships, it is standard operating procedure for certified trainers and physicians to conduct a careful skin evaluation of every wrestler before weigh-ins on both days of the tournament. Physicians and certified athletic trainers are trained to detect symptoms and make a determination as to the nature of the condition and whether the student-athlete may compete without posing a risk to himself of any other competitor.
"We are confident that our practices, along with an exhaustive medical review of this particular situation, ensure that there is no justification for concern about the spread of a contagious disease at the event.
"We look forward to sponsoring the anticipated 561 student-athletes from 276 California high schools competing at the 44th annual CIF State Wrestling Championships."
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