The Raptors will advise their players to get the H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available, team officials confirmed.
But in terms of amping up the precautions in light of the recent deaths caused by H1N1, there really is not much more the team had to do.
GM Bryan Colangelo said his medical staff led by Dr. Howard Petroff and Dr. Paul Marks have been ahead of this thing since back in training camp when the team held a half hour information session for the players and staff.
Since then the team has installed hand sanitizers in all areas they work in from the practice court to the locker room to the weight room.
They have also mandated that anyone showing any symptoms of the flu remain away from the team until he is cleared.
“We have to make sure if somebody’s sick they don’t come any more to practice and find out how sick they are,” head coach Jay Triano said. “We leave them at home now and we’ll send somebody over there to evaluate them and we’ll do a swab test to find out if it is positive and keep them away from everybody and try to not let it spread.”
During training camp players who finished up interviews with he media were almost immediately visited by a member of the team staff with a bottle of hand sanitizer ready to wash away any germs that might have been passed along with a handshake.
“We’re cleaning our hands all the time and the trainers have the Purell stuff to make sure we’re sanitized on the bench, in the locker room and in the training room,” Triano said.
Water bottles, a potential problem in minor sports where bottles are shared by the entire team are not a problem at the professional level where each player has his own bottle.
mike.ganter@sunmedia.ca
