Do competitive sports present a risk of exposure to HIV?
The risk of HIV exposure during competitive sports is proportional to the risk of direct blood to blood contact. The risk of blood to blood contact during school supervised play is very minimal since this would require that two players with uncovered wounds come in direct contact with each other. Both routine infection control procedures and common sense call for requiring players to cover all weeping skin lesions before play begins and removing any player with a bleeding wound until bleeding is stopped and any wounds are covered. Since there is some potential for exposure to blood or body fluids as a result of athletic injury, both students and school personnel should use universal precautions in providing first aid. While there is some very minimal risk, school staff should be aware that the theoretical risk of HIV transmission as a result of athletic injury is very low compared to the definitive risk of HIV transmission through unprotected sexual intercourse or sharing of injection
