School sued for wrestlers herpes outbreak

We all know that wrestling is a special support. Where manly men seem to spend a lot of time getting familiar with other guys, on a mat, pinning them down grinding various body parts into other body parts. Its all a bit sweaty and gross, and apparently it can give you herpes.

A school in Philadelphia is being sued by three former wrestlers who contracted herpes. Right now you are imaging some locker room antics, steamy showers and genital sores. You’d be wrong. The school is being sued for $150,000 in damages by the three plaintiffs, for the common herpes or cold sores.

James Harris and Andrew Bradley, of Delaware, and Alex Binder, of Maryland are all suing the York College of Pennsylvania, in York County. Their suit claims that coaches knew that a teammate had contracted herpes simplex virus Type 1 (the cold sore kind), yet allowed him to continue wrestling and infecting others during the fall of 2006.

James Harris is afraid that people will think he contracted herpes from a prostitute, instead of at wrestling practice.

“I feel uncleansed,” said Harris, 23, a former standout wrestler for Winslow Township High School, in Camden County. “There’s a stigma attached to it.”

We don’t think the stigma of cold sores is any worse than the stigma of being a wrestler.

Dr. Warren R. Heymann, head of dermatology at Cooper University Hospital, said that herpes is fairly common in the world of wrestling.

“It got the name herpes gladiatorum for that reason,” Heymann said. “This is not a new issue. There’s no greater contact sport than wrestling. It’s intimate and prolonged skin-to-skin contact.”

Apparently none of the boys have girlfriends at the moment because they fear outbreak. Somehow we don’t think that’s the reason. Suck it up boys, oh wait you already did. We are probably being a little harsh, but suing a school for cold sores seems a little lame.

James Harris and Alex Binder are pictured below in case you are curious, or want to see if they are having an outbreak.