hispanicpanic79's blog

(Posting with written permission to do so from MeetFighter's administrative team)

Preston, a member of the MeetFighters community (for 3 years with 73 matches) was driving to WrestleFest 2024 in New York City via Trenton New Jersey, when a car sideswiped him, rolling his car into a ditch and giving him head trauma.

The trauma caused a seizure, and he was hospitalized in ICU for a couple of days during the actual WrestleFest event. While he's out of the hospital now, he'll be out of work for at least three months while he has follow-up visits with doctors.

I, HispanicPanic79, reached out to Preston to ask if he needed anything. He indicated that he could use help to afford groceries and pay his phone bill until he returns to work. Thankfully, he has medical insurance to help cover his health needs.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-fellow-meetfighter-preston-after-a-car-crash

Preston's many MF recommendations show that his past opponents consider him an outstanding wrestler — one who is easygoing, respectful, skilled, and spirited. He is also active in his local community and has volunteered with Big Brother Big Sisters of America.

Any support you can provide to help him deal with this challenging period (and to show him the strength and support of the MeetFighters community) would be greatly appreciated.

"I'd never wrestle a guy with HIV," one of my former opponents said.

"Why's that?" I asked.

"I don't wanna catch it," he responded. "I wouldn't even smoke a joint that an HIV-positive guy smoked — I just don't wanna risk getting it."

I was surprised at his admission, but not shocked, considering the poor state of sex education in public schools. I informed him that it was highly likely that he HAD already wrestled an HIV-positive person and just not known it.

Then it struck me: If he thinks you can catch HIV through wrestling, lots of other guys on MeetFighters.com probably do too.

So I'm writing this post to help give factual info about why it's nearly impossible to catch HIV through wrestling. And just so you know: I'm an HIV-negative journalist who has interviewed an HIV educator about this very topic — you can hear my podcast about it here: https://megaphone.link/VMP9022661285 — and I would happily wrestle an HIV-positive competitor without hesitation.

After interviewing Erin Butler, Deputy Director of Prevention at the Cascade AIDS Project of Oregon, here's the basics on why you can't catch HIV through wrestling:

1) IF YOU OPPONENT BLEEDS ON YOU DURING A MATCH: HIV is most easily passed through blood and semen that comes into contact with mucous membranes within the body. Whenever HIV-positive blood is exposed to the air, it begins to die almost immediately. Thus it would take signifcant amounts of the virus in the blood, a large amount of blood AND the blood to have direct contact with a large open wound in the HIV-negative person's skin in order to even risk infection. (A skin condition like a rash or eczema isn't the same as an open wound).

If your opponent starts bleeding, you should probably stop the match and clean up the blood using "universal precautions": gloves to avoid direct contact with blood, clean and disinfect all contaminated surfaces (using soap, alcohol, and bandages/towels to stop the bleeding), and safely handle/dispose of contaminated material (putting blood-soaked fabrics into a garbage bag for later laundering, for example). This way, you can minimize the possibility of exposure.

And if you have any sores or rashes on your body, you can take the extra precaution of covering them up with wraps or bandages, even though the likelihood of catching HIV through them is super-duper low.

2) SWEAT AND SALIVA DON'T TRANSMIT HIV: HIV is not passed through sweat or saliva. We know this because HIV-positive athletes have been playing alongside HIV-negative athletes for decades, and because HIV-positive family members have been living alongside HIV-negative family members for just as long. Since the start of the HIV epidemic in 1981, no confirmed cases of transmission via saliva or sweat have ever occurred.

3) MOST HIV+ PEOPLE ARE ON TREATMENT AND "UNDETECTABLE": Many people living with HIV take medications that make thier viral load (the amount of virus in the blood) undetectable. That is, the level of virus in their body gets to such low levels that blood tests cannot detect it. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control say that an HIV-positive person with an undetectable viral load is virtually incapable of transmitting HIV to another person.

While it's possible that an HIV-positive person on medication might be detectable — perhaps because their medications have stopped working and they don't yet know it — people on HIV medications often have regular medical checkups and bloodwork to ensure that doesn't happen, so the likelihood of them having a high enough viral load to pass it on through bleeding, even if their meds stopped working, is still pretty small.

4) IF YOU'RE HAVING SEX WITH YOUR OPPONENTS... then use condoms or PrEP (pre-exposure prophylactics), a medication that when taken daily can greatly reduce the chance of contracting HIV by nearly 99%. And if you're just having oral sex, while HIV can be present in pre-cum and semen, there are virtually no documented cases in which a person contracted HIV through oral sex. If you're that worried about it, just stick to jerking off or don't have your opponent ejaculate in your mouth.

5) IF YOU'RE STILL WORRIED - If you think you may have been exposed to HIV, you can take PEP — post-exposure prophylactics, a month-long regimen of pills which prevent HIV from infecting the body — up to 72-hours after a possible exposure. Most urgent care clinics, primary care physicians and doctors can prescribe such meds. They're cheaper with insurance, naturally. If you can't afford them, contact your local HIV organization and ask for their help.

People with HIV face a lot of stigma due to ignorance and outdated fears we have about the virus. Please don't add to anti-HIV discrimination by passing on unfounded fears about "how easy it is to transmit." When it comes to wrestling, it's actually very hard to transmit and there's no reason to turn away an HIV-positive competitor, just as long as y'all know the facts and stop wrestling if either one of you starts bleeding.