Precautions taken after outbreak

by Todd Irwin, Altoona Mirror

Posted on December 6, 2007

Matches postponed because of skin disease.

Dave Marko wouldn't call himself an expert on contagious skin diseases, but the Claysburg-Kimmel wrestling coach has learned a lot about them.

He learned the hard way when one of his wrestlers found out he had impetigo, which appears as a small or extensive sized rash on the body.

The wrestler contracted the disease at a home preseason scrimmage with Connellsville, Mount Union and Central Cambria. It appears that one Connellsville wrestler not only brought a gym bag with him, he also brought a skin infection.

Eight Connellsville wrestlers have been diagnosed with herpes gladiatorum, a condition that could have, according to one sports medicine Web site, tingling, pain, itching, etc. in the area just prior to the appearance of groups of very tiny, painful blisters.

It's the same disease that affected 24 high school wrestlers in Minnesota in January and caused the suspension of the sport there for nearly a month.

This herpes virus, by the way, is the same one that causes outbreaks such as cold sores and fever blisters.

"This isn't something that's life threatening," Marko said as he drew on his new knowledge of skin diseases. "Only in extreme cases does it land somebody in the hospital. In reality, what person hasn't had a cold sore or chicken pox? They're both forms of herpes."

Because more than three Connellsville wrestlers came down with the disease, the school had to contact the Department of Health and contact anybody else who was in contact with the wrestler or wrestlers.

While Connellsville was hit with herpes gladiatorum, the C-K wrestler and four Mount Union wrestlers came down with the impetigo. Central Cambria was not affected.

"Connellsville had the most affected," said Marko said, "but I'm not really pointing fingers. We had to take the stance to attack it. One of our parents came back from the Hollidaysburg-Northern Bedford match [Tuesday] and heard that Claysburg had 14 kids infected and a kid in the hospital. We had one kid and he wasn't hospitalized."

Because the incubation period for impetigo is eight days, the affected team can't have contact for that amount of time. The Bulldogs went nine days, with Wednesday being the last day, or "judgement day," as Marko called it.

As a result of the infections, C-K and Mount Union have been postponing matches since the season started. Lewistown, which was at a scrimmage with Mount Union and Chestnut Ridge, postponed its match with Bald Eagle Area, scheduled for this Saturday, because of a skin infection.

Chestnut Ridge doesn't have any skin diseases, but it postponed its Tuesday match with North Star for precautionary reasons.

"We have had zero percent," Ridge coach Jim Clark said of skin diseases, "but we want to err on the safe side this year."

Coaches have always preached to their wrestlers about avoiding skin diseases, but they're really hammering the point during the year of the MRSA virus, which killed some students and caused a scare across the nation.

At Tyrone, even though skin to mat to skin infections are rare, the mat in "The Cage" is cleaned after every practice. Coach Blair Packer also gives his personal hygiene talk to the wrestlers.

"Kids need to take good showers, especially at tournaments," Packer said. "We tell them to leave soap on their bodies for 1 1/2 minutes. And they need to clean knee pads, wrist pads and elbow pads."

"We went with an all new mopping system and all new chemicals to clean the mats," said Glendale coach Bill Damiano, whose Tuesday match with Mount Union was postponed. "You have to wipe off all the equipment. Towels get laundered every day. Kids have to shower immediately after practice and after matches."

Marko says parents of wrestlers within the school district and from opposing teams shouldn't feat the spread of impetigo or herpes gladiatorum to their kids.

"I'd like to speak for everybody and say we're being overly precautious," he said. "That's O.K. because it's the kids' health we're talking about."

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