WHO doesn’t see need to delay or move Olympics over Zika fears

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: STAT

The World Health Organization will not urge the International Olympic Committee to postpone or move this summer’s Rio Games because of the Zika outbreak in Brazil.

Holding the Olympics as scheduled won’t substantially increase the risk of the Zika virus spreading, a committee of experts that advises the WHO on Zika told the agency on Tuesday.

“The committee concluded there … is very low risk of additional international spread from the Olympics,” said Dr. David Heymann, who chairs the expert panel. He’s an infectious diseases expert and professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

At least 227 academics have signed a petition arguing that it’s unsafe to hold the Olympics and Paralympics in Rio this summer. But other experts, including Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, argue that there is already so much travel in and out of Latin American countries with Zika outbreaks that the Olympics will do little to further fuel the virus’ spread.

Read more: https://www.statnews.com/2016/06/14/zika-olympics-who/

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Here's the WHO's rationale (emphasis ours):

"The Committee concluded that there is a very low risk of further international spread of Zika virus as a result of the Olympic and Paralympic Games as Brazil will be hosting the Games during the Brazilian winter when the intensity of autochthonous transmission of arboviruses, such dengue and Zika viruses, will be minimal and is intensifying vector-control measures in and around the venues for the Games which should further reduce the risk of transmission."

Essentially, because it will be the winter in Brazil, there won't be as much local transmission of Zika and other viruses, including dengue by mosquitoes. So, the WHO noted, it shouldn't be much of a problem as long as there are good prevention measures in place.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/who-on-olympics-there-is-a-very-low-risk-of-further-international-spread-of-zika-virus-2016-6?r=US&IR=T

[villager]

1. It threatens to be a grim Abbott & Costello routine: "Who doesn't see the need...?," etc. nt

[TexasProgresive]

2. I always thought Rio was a mistake from the beginning.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. For huge events there really is never a Plan B

Too big to move
Too big to reschedule
Too big to cancel all the financial arrangements

[tblue37]

4. What about all the evidence of superbug genes in their grossly polluted waterways? nt

[womanofthehills]

5. Maybe because most pregnant women in Columbia with Zita had normal babies

No wave of Zika birth defects in Colombia—yet

The risk Zika virus poses for pregnant women and their babies is still unclear.


By Gretchen VogelJun. 15, 2016 , 6:15 PM

Zika virus infections late in pregnancy may pose less risk to the fetus than widely feared. Researchers report today that they found no overt birth defects among 616 babies in Colombia whose mothers showed symptoms of Zika virus disease in their third trimester of pregnancy.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/06/no-wave-zika-birth-defects-colombia-yet