Clinical Sports Medicine
LETTER TO THE EDITOR - ONLINE ONLY

Letter to the Editor: COVID-19 in a Thai Boxing Area in Thailand

Leserbrief: COVID-19 im Thai-Boxen in Thailand

Letter to the Editor

The new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an importantglobal public health problem, which affectsmore than 140 countries around the world. The wideoutbreak of the disease occurs in several countriessuch as China, South Korea, Iran and Italy (4). Thesport activity related disease transmission is an importantconsideration in sport medicine. In general,unnecessary sport competition is postponed andthe audience is usually not allowed.

Regarding Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games,it is still under decision by Olympic Committeethat the completion will be postponed or not (1). The reason that any big sport match should bepostponed or cancelled is the increased risk of COVID-19 spreading (2). This is the same reason forcancellation of many international conferences (3).

Here, the authors would like to share the situationfrom Thailand, the second country in the timelineof COVID-19 pandemic. The infection occurssince early January 2020 and there are overall 82 COVID-19 cases at present (15th March 2020).

Of these cases, there is a case of male patient,who is both Thai boxer and owner of Thai boxingtraining camp. The source of infection in this case isunknown. The patient had mild symptom and diagnosedby molecular diagnosis. Since the patient hasseveral activities in Thai boxing area, the spreadingof disease might occur. Nevertheless, there isno official report on the local transmission fromthis case.

Thai boxing is a sport that boxers have to closelycontact to each other and the crowded environmentby audience in Thai boxing area is common, the occurrenceof COVID-19 becomes a big challenge indisease control.

According to our best knowledge, this is the firstreport on COVID-19 on boxing related person.

Conflict of Interest
The authors have no conflict of interest.

References

  1. GALLEGO V, NISHIURA H, SAH R, RODRIGUEZ-MORALES AJ. The COVID-19 outbreak and implications for theTokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games. Travel MedInfect Dis. 2020; 101604 [Epub ahead of print].
    doi:10.1016/j.tmaid.2020.101604
  2. GAUTRET P, AL-TAWFIQ JA, HOANG VT. COVID 19: Will the2020 Hajj pilgrimage and Tokyo Olympic Games becancelled? Travel Med Infect Dis. 2020: 101622 [Epubahead of print].
    doi: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2020.101622
  3. RIMMER A. Covid-19: Medical conferences aroundthe world are cancelled after US cases are linkedto Massachusetts meeting. BMJ. 2020; 368: m1054.
    doi:10.1136/bmj.m1054
  4. ROTHAN HA, BYRAREDDY SN. The epidemiology andpathogenesis of coronavirus disease (COVID-19)outbreak. J Autoimmun. 2020; 102433 [Epub ahead ofprint].
    doi:10.1016/j.jaut.2020.102433
Won Sriwijiatalai
RVT Medical Center
Rama 9 Road
Bangkok 10140
Thailand
wonsriwi@rvtmed.co.th