Re: Does spitting of athletes endanger health of others?

Spitting on the ground is not sanitary and has the potential to transmit 
diseases.  Human saliva is a body fluid and can carry many pathogens 
including those from the respiratory tract, such as tuberculosis (TB).  It 
also contains many bacterial species that are "normal" to the oral cavity 
but can cause infections at other body sites, such as a broken skin surface  
- a fairly frequent occurrence in athletic events.  However, the possibility 
of disease transmission via this route in an athletic event is miniscule and 
rarely, if at all, documented.  Here are some reasons:

1. Athletes, either the "donors" or the "recipients" of the saliva, are 
generally healthy.  The donors rarely carry severe diseases and can still 
play the sport.  The recipients generally have a good immune system to 
defend pathogen invasion in the even of an inoculation.
2. Although saliva contains many bacteria and some viruses, many of them do 
not survive well after leaving the human body.  Even if one has an open 
wound contacting saliva materials from the ground directly in a sporting 
event, the chance of getting infected by these oral pathogens are probably 
much smaller than by other pathogens from the dirt in the ground.  
3. Saliva contains enzymes that inactivate many pathogens, therefore offers 
some protection from disease transmission.  This is why many people spit on 
their wounds before antibiotics are widely available and why dogs lick their 
wounds.
4. For TB, coughing up saliva in public has been thought to contribute to 
disease transmission in endemic areas.  The mechanism of transmission is 
airborne, not direct contact. Fortunately, the disease prevalence is low in 
the US and other industrialized nations, thus the possibility of having a 
"spitter" with this disease in a sporting event in these countries is very 
low.
5. Although not asked, HIV is often a popular pathogen people would like to 
discuss in these scenarios.  Although saliva from an infected person does 
contain the virus, the possibility of transmitting this virus by spitting in 
the ground is nearly zero due to the mechanisms described in 3 and 4 above, 
as well as the fact that HIV transmission is believed to require certain 
viral "mass".  There is no documentation to-date of such transmission.

Overall, the possibility of disease transmission from spitting on the ground 
is very low, but does present.  This activity should be STRONGLY 
discouraged.  It is neither sanitary nor visually pleasing.



For references or additional information, please go to www.cdc.gov and 
search for specific disease of interest.