Infectious Diseases

Preparation for competition in any sport requires proper training and practice.  Whether it means preparing your body or maintaining your equipment, proper preparation is necessary.  Keeping your body and equipment clean is part of that process.  Infectious diseases do propagate and are easily transmitted in the sports environment.  Contact sports and those with heavy amounts of equipment are more prone than others, but needless to say, proper hygiene is necessary in all sports to reduce the potential of transmitting these agents.  The NFHS Sports Medicine Advisory Committee and VHSL Sports Medicine Advisory Committee (SMAC) realize these issues and have established guidelines to educate the sporting and medical communities about their presence and means to reduce transmission of sports related infections diseases.  (NFHS Sports Medicine Handbook)

Listed below are some resources that provide information about sports hygiene and disease prevention.