Infectious Diseases in Competitive Sports

Prevalence of superficial fungal infections among sports‐active individuals: results from the Achilles survey, a review of the literature

“…Although athletes are usually healthy adults and sports‐related skin diseases are often minor, it is important for these disorders to be recognized by individuals, physicians, nurses, coaches and trainers. Sports personnel, especially, should be familiar with the features of fungal infections that occur in sports and measures for the prevention and/or treatment of these problems 29 . Fungi reproduce by spores that tend to become scattered throughout all footwear, foot coverings and floor surfaces, thus transmitting the infection or re‐infecting the individual’s feet.…”

“…However, a typical course of treatment for tinea pedis lasts for 4–6 weeks, and thus topical therapies are often viewed as inconvenient by the patient, and compliance may be a problem 30 . In addition, oral antifungal agents are usually required to achieve resolution of dry type tinea pedis, especially if the condition is moderate to severe 29 . Traditionally, onychomycosis of the toenails has been very difficult to treat, because of the naturally slow growth of the nail, resulting in low cure rates and high relapse rates.…”

Training Room Management of Medical Conditions: Infectious Diseases

“…Fortunately, the majority of reported meningitis cases in the literature concerning athletes are described as aseptic. Multiple case reports have described aseptic meningitis outbreaks among high school football players between 1978 and 1990 [43][44][45][46][47][48].…”

Foodborne Illness Outbreak Investigation in a High-Profile Sports Club

“…Despite the frequency of such outbreaks in the general population [1, 2], infectious disease outbreaks of any type in sporting teams are not frequently described in the literature [3–5]. The few reported outbreaks in sporting teams in Australia have mainly been caused by environmental pathogens, such as Cryptosporidium [6, 7] and Aeromonas hydrophila [8], rather than foodborne organisms.…”

“…Sports teams may be at increased risk of infectious diseases due to their close physical interactions, exposing them to both point-source and person-to-person transmission [3, 4, 12]. Teams may also be at risk of foodborne illness because of mass catering at training, events or functions.…”