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MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) – Research from Germany and Italy suggests that soccer players and other athletes face a particular risk of the coronavirus infecting their lungs, raising serious questions about attempts to restart professional soccer.
The research, produced by Italian immunologists and lung specialists based at institutes in Berlin, Rome, and Verona, suggests that due to strenuous exercise, elite athletes are more likely to inhale virus particles and target them to lower areas of the lung.
COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, can cause lung damage and complications such as pneumonia and, in severe cases, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
The prepress document https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202004.0436/v1, which has not yet been peer reviewed, also suggests that asymptomatic athletes could worsen their condition by infecting their lungs during strenuous exertion.
Soccer has been halted in every major league in Europe and none has yet to resume. European football’s governing body, UEFA, has set May 25 as the deadline for leagues to describe their restart plans.
However, leagues, governing bodies, and clubs have said they will only return when the game is safe and that they will receive medical advice.
In their article: “The first comprehensive immunological model of COVID-19”, Paolo Matricardi, Roberto Dal Negro and Roberto Nisini pose questions about the safety of playing while the virus remains free.
“The breathing pattern during strenuous exercise is dramatically changed by a tremendous increase in ventilation (ie, inspiratory and expiratory air volumes), and alveolar ventilation in particular,” the authors state.
“Professional athletes (are) particularly exposed (much more than individuals in the common population) due to their frequent practice of extreme and long-lasting exercise.”
The researchers say that athletes’ “ideal lungs”, while useful under normal conditions, significantly favor deep inhalation of infectious agents.
“Even SARS-CoV-2 can more easily spread to the deeper areas of the lungs during strenuous exercise, and there its aggressive action begins,” they said.
Coronavirus-2 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) is the name given to the new 2019 coronavirus. COVID-19 is the name given to the disease associated with the virus.
“Not by chance, a large proportion of professional soccer players reported fever, dry cough, and malaise (and dyspnea in some cases) immediately after, or a few hours after, their last official game,” the authors note.
ASYMPTOMATIC ATHLETES
In addition to the dangers, research says that players who have the virus but don’t show symptoms could worsen their condition by allowing the virus to move from their upper to lower airways.
Asymptomatic but infected athletes can exhale or remove aerosolized particles that may contain viruses that are then inhaled again.
“These droplets or aerosols could be inhaled again and facilitate the spread of the virus from the upper to the lower respiratory tract,” the document said.
The authors also analyze the risk of virus transmission during a game.
“In sports where many athletes are in close contact, such as team sports or marathons, the same particles are highly likely to be inhaled by other athletes, facilitating viral transmission.
“To emphasize that strenuous exercise induces much more frequent spitting of secretions and this may further contribute to the environmental spread of SARS-CoV-2, particularly if the distancing recommendations are not strictly followed.”
A new separate study from Aarhus University in Denmark, which analyzed the amount of exposure players would have to a single infected player on the field, showed that, on average, one player is placed within an ‘exposure zone’ for one minute and 28 seconds during a match
On Tuesday, the World Players Association, which represents some 85,000 athletes from different sports in more than 60 countries, said competitors should not return to action.
“Right now there is a lot of pressure from leagues on all continents to resume,” WPA chief executive Brendan Schwab told Reuters in an interview.
“Players can only accept that (return) if they know that their interests will be protected. “
FIFPro, the global union of soccer players, has also called for caution.
“We need guidance and protocols on how to return safely and healthy. Soccer is a contact sport and we believe that very high standards of protection are required, ”said FIFPro Secretary General Jonas Baer-Hoffmann.
(Reports by Simon Evans, additional reports by Andreas Mortensen and Karolos Grohmann; Edition by Toby Davis)
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