The center of Moriches High School lost its football match last week after some team members contracted contagious coxsackievirus and other players could not adapt to injuries, ineligibility or personal reasons, according to school officials.
In a letter shared with families, Ricardo Soto, superintendent of the Center Morches school center, said that there were no additional cases of viruses, beyond the few players identified before the planned competition on Friday against Miller Place High School. It is not known how many players have been diagnosed with the virus, but Soto said they would return to school and athletics after receiving medical authorization.
“As a precautionary measure, the district has carried out a deep and extensive cleaning of the three buildings, including the corridors, the changing rooms, the cafeterias and the classrooms during the weekend,” he said in the letter, the addition of the situation will continue to be monitored.
Coxsackievirus is propagated by close contact with a person who has the virus; by touching contaminated surfaces; Droplets released by an infected person who coughs, sneezes or speaks; And blistering liquid, according to the centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Although it is not clear what tension of the virus that the players contracted, the strains which generally cause oral wounds and an eruption on the palm of the hands and the soles of the feet are commonly called hand disease, foot and mouth, according to the CDC. Hand, foot and mouth diseases generally strike children under the age of 5, but people of all ages can fall sick.
It generally causes slight pseudo-Grippal symptoms, said Dr. Bruce Farber, head of public health and epidemiology of Northwell Health. The virus, Farber said, should not be the alarm and is normally resolved in a week.
“It certainly leads people to fall temporarily,” he said. “But it’s not horrible.”
Matt Millheiser, football coach at the Center Moraches High, told Newsday that he had discovered a potential virus epidemic on Friday after noticing that two players had blisters on their hands shortly before they had to leave for the 6-hour match at Miller Place High School.
Millheiser said he had then started to inquire and learned that other players were also sick or had recently returned to the virus.
He decided to lose, said the coach, because the last series of diseases placed the team below the minimum requirement of 16 players available for a match. Although there are 22 players on the list, other team members were due to an injury or ineligibility, he said. In the letter, Soto said some players were absent for personal reasons.
“So, just in an abundance of prudence, we decided that since we did not really know who had it and did not present it, we just thought out of respect for Miller Place, it was not the right decision to go there with a very contagious disease and to spread it to their team,” said Millheiser.
The changing rooms were disinfected and all the players were invited to bring back and wash all their clothes, according to Millheiser.
Adam St. Nicholas, football coach in Miller Place High, said that he had discovered that the match had been canceled during the training field procedure. While he said he was initially disappointed, he realized that Millheiser had made the right decision.
“I certainly hope that the Moroccan Center will be healthy and heal,” he said in an interview. “I think that when you prepare all week to play an opponent, then you are drawn two hours before the match, there is natural disappointment. But then, when you are able to sit down and collect information and understand the potential consequences, it puts it a little better in perspective.”
Farber said it was not so unusual for the virus to spread among athletes.
“They are in a locker room. They are together. It is the perfect environment to spread a virus like that,” he said.
The next game from the Morose Center is planned For Saturday against Bayport-Blue Point, but the WCI will make a decision later in the week to find out if the team will be able to play, according to Millheiser.
