Nutrition in Combat Sports

7 Blood-Borne Infections in Combat Sports 117
Box 7.2 Legal considerations, joint statements of the International Federation
of Sports Medicine and the World Health Organization on AIDS and Sports 5
Confidentiality dictates that medical information is the property of the patient.
Exceptions include medical conditions that are reportable by regulation and
statute. Therefore, the responsibility of the physician is very clear. The physician
is not liable for failure to warn the uninfected opponent. That legal
responsibility lies with the HIV-infected athlete. However, the uninfected athlete
must be aware that he or she assumes some of the risk (albeit small) of
contacting HIV or other blood-borne pathogen disease in sports activities
because it cannot be assumed that his or her competitors are HIV (or other
blood-borne pathogen) free. This does not differ from other injuries that are
inherent in sports.
The responsibility for the sexual transmission of HIV lies with the HIVinfected
person. As yet, there has been no legal activity regarding transmission
of HIV in sports competition. The physician is advised to be aware of
local and federal statues, and regulations concerning confidentiality.
7.2.7 The Infected Athletes
According to the FIMS and WHO, and some sports medicine associations, the risk
of transmission from infected athletes with BBI to other athletes is very low.
Therefore, they have stated that, based on risk of infection, most infected athletes
with these viral infections should be allowed to participate in all sports. [3, 5, 7, 45 ]
However, it is sensible to recommend to the combat sports athletes who are infected
to BBI to change their sports activity to a noncontact sport. It is especially true for
sports such as wrestling and boxing with higher risk of bleeding injury or prolonged
body contact.
Some combat sports organizations have now passed regulations that athletes
infected with HIV can NOT compete in their sports such as those organizations
mentioned above who have regulated for mandatory HIV testing. USA Wrestling,
the National governing body for wrestling in the USA, also regulated that:
Athletes known to be infected with the HIV/HBV virus cannot compete in any
USA Wrestling sanctioned event. [46 ]
This rule is not similar to the rule of FILA. It seems that the law in each country
is also important in this regard. A court in the USA ruled that a karate school was
not obligated to accept an HIV-positive teenage boy into its sparring classes.[ 47]
Sports medicine practitioners should be aware of relevant local rules and
regulations.