Skin Infection in Wrestlers Due to Herpes Simplex Virus

Many high schools and colleges have had serious outbreaks of skin infections due to herpes simplex virus. Diagnosis has often been obscure. Much time has been lost to team members as wrestlers and also from the regular classrooms. Some students have had to withdraw from school because of this loss of time. Some wrestling meets have had to be canceled because of extensive infection among team members. Clinical Observations During the past seven years we have clinically identified herpes simplex cases among our athleticteam members and, especially, among occasional wrestlers. In the autumn of 1963, however, many members of the varsity and freshman wrestling teams came to our health service with lesions typical of herpes simplex (Fig 1). These lesions were maculopapular, vesicular, and pustular and in various stages of development and progression. They occurred especially on the face, scalp, shoulders, back, chest, and upper extremities. We observed these lesions