The man in charge of Iowa high school wrestling says it’s tough to control all communicable diseases such as herpes gladiatorum in a sport like wrestling. Alan Beste of the Iowa High School Athletic Association says that wrestling coaches, officials, and participants try their best to make sure nothing is spread between wrestlers.
Beste says officials do check over wrestlers prior to a meet to make sure there is nothing suspicious on their body. He says anything that looks suspicious in a skin check requires a form from the wrestlers doctor to say the condition is not communicable.
Minnesota’s high school athletic association has shut down the sport for eight days due to the outbreak. Beste says that was the best move in that situation, and says if there’s ever a similar outbreak here in Iowa, high school officials would shut down the sport as well. Beste says you have to applaud Minnesota as they took a drastic measure to get the situation under control.
Beste says they’ve contacted every school in the state to make sure they are looking at their wrestlers carefully to make sure they don’t have skin conditions like herpes gladiatorum. He says before the season starts the association sends out information on how to prevent the spread of such things. Beste says they sent an e-mail to remind everyone after hearing what happened in Minnesota.
A wrestler from Clear Lake has been diagnosed with the condition as well as24 cases reported by ten teams in Minnesota. Clear Lake faced one of those teams, Kasson-Mantorville, two weeks ago at the Osage Duals tournament.