HIV and Sports: What Is the Risk?

Abstract

Magic Johnson's second retirement from the Los Angeles Lakers speaks to the fear athletes have of contracting HIV while participating in sports. Many of your patients may share the anxiety publicly expressed by a few professional basketball players about playing alongside Magic Johnson. Because athletes often turn to primary care physicians to address such concerns, we gathered two medical experts and a college athlete to discuss athletes' perceptions of HIV and the medical evidence of the transmission risk in sports.