(Mirror Daily, United States) – Seventeen years old boy, Blake Flovin is unable to attend the wrestling state championship because he somehow contracted a strain of herpes. The high school teenager blamed herpes on unsanitary wrestling mats and participants that do not follow regular health protocols.

The Mitty High senior claims that the viral infection was caught after practicing and fighting on the wrestling mat. According to Flovin, the school did not implement proper health protocols when the boys trained. This led to a sick child leaving the virus on the mat and the teenager contracting the disease that resulted in his disqualification from the tournament.

The Herpes gladiatorum is usually associated with contact sports. The skin infection it creates is highly contagious and could easily pass from person to person during training.

But how did the first infected child end up on the mat instead of being under treatment?

The thing is, wrestling is not just a hobby for most of these boys. It’s a possible ticket to a scholarship or partial scholarship to a good school. With that in mind, the players give it all in and hate skipping tournaments were talent hunters could be waiting in the audience.

So instead of waiting for the infection to be over, most participants choose to cover their sores with makeup or Band-Aids. The risk of getting themselves disqualified is greater than passing their infection to other players.

Rick Flovin, the teenager’s father is an assistant coach at his son’s high school and an EMT. He says that this is not the first time when a player hides the disease in order to keep on fighting.

Due to his medical training, Rick helped the wrestling community create and adopt a number of hygiene practices. One of them that needs to be implemented by all schools as soon as possible is the rule that every wrestler must use disinfectant before a fight.

Furthermore, the senior director of the Interscholastic California Federation, Brian Seymor, declared that they follow the protocol strictly, and there were many instances in which a wrestler was disqualified because of skin lesions or other visible signs of disease.

Seymor will also preside the Bakersfield tournament that will take place in the upcoming weekend. He said that the Interscholastic Federation will see that all of the schools abide by the safety standards.

Blake will not be participating in the tournament, and he is urging any players that he might have accidentally infected to step down from the competition before more children are exposed to the virus.

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