A small team of global refugee athletes will participate in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this year, Thomas Bach, the president of the worldwide Olympic Committee, confirmed Thursday.
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“Plagued by so many problems, Rio is clearly in a league of its own among host cities of the Olympics in recent memory”, said Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economics scholar at Smith College in the United States. Recommendations included using mosquito repellent and wearing long-sleeved shirts and pants.
Brazil is one of the main areas of concern, where local transmission was first reported in May of 2015.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach leaves after a news conference in Lausan …
“It is the ideal set-up for proliferation”, said Isaac Bogoch, a tropical infectious disease specialist at Toronto General Hospital, who published a scientific paper predicting Zika’s rapid spread.
The mosquito has been linked by Brazilian researchers to a seemingly sudden upsurge in cases of microcephaly, in which children are born with abnormally small heads. For most people the virus causes mild symptoms that last less than a week.
Rio Olympics organizers are also scrambling to slim down and save money as Brazil is suffering from its worst economic crisis in decades, with the economy shrinking previous year and expected to do the same in 2016.
During his speech, the IOC Chief was also introduced to Farhad Takallo, an Iranian who says he was a shooting champion back home.
Zika is transmitted through mosquito bites.
Bach said national governing bodies can then “inform all their athletes (about the safety guidelines) to show that we will do everything to ensure the health of the athletes and all the visitors”.
Speaking to reporters in Switzerland, Dr. Sylvain Aldighieri said the lack of immunity to the virus and the fact the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that spread it can be found nearly “everywhere in the Americas” – except for Canada and Chile – “explains the speed” of its development.
Rio 2016 Games organisers said in a statement that the Olympics, which take place from August 5-21, are during the winter months when the “dryer, cooler climate significantly reduces the presence of mosquitoes”.
The New Zealand Olympic Committee is advising all athletes who are pregnant or hoping to get pregnant in the near future not to travel to the games in Brazil in August.
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Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) assured teams travelling to Rio Olympics would be safe from the Zika virus, but urged visitors to carefully protect themselves while in the region.
