In most cases, Zika is transmitted by mosquitoes.
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Rousseff is facing impeachment proceedings and low popularity amid an economic crisis, but says she expects Congress’ support.
Jaques Wagner, the chief of staff for Brazil president Dilma Rousseff, said Monday there was no risk to athletes unless “they are pregnant women”.
The committee advised that the association between the virus and microcephaly – a condition where the child has an underdeveloped brain – constitutes an “extraordinary event”. Sao Paulo is Swiss’ main destination in South America.
“At this time, there is no impact on operations to our three gateways in South America (Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires)…”
The committee members asked officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health for briefings on the disease.
“We continue to closely monitor the situation through the CDC and have ongoing contact with the International Olympic Committee, the organizing officials in Rio, the World Health Organization and infectious disease specialists with expertise in tropical diseases, including the Zika virus”, the USOC said in a statement.
Fast-growing Emirates has emerged as a major long-haul carrier, and is the biggest operator of the Boeing 777 and the double-decker Airbus A380.
Daniel Soranz, Rio’s city health secretary, told reporters the mosquitoes around the Olympic Park, the heart of the games, were not primarily the Aedes aegypt type that transmit Zika.
“The viral disease is strongly suspected to have a causal relation with clusters of microcephaly and other neurological abnormalities”, said WHO Southeast Asia director Poonam Khetrapal Singh on Tuesday. The virus has no vaccine or cure at present.
One of the cases, a 47-year-old Waikato man, ended up being admitted to hospital also with symptoms indicative of Guillain-Barre, a condition which can cause paralysis, but from which most patients make a full recovery.
France-based Sanofi said in a statement Tuesday that its experience with the dengue vaccine “can be rapidly leveraged to help understand the spread” of Zika and “potentially speed identification of a vaccine candidate for further clinical development”.
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WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said on Monday that delaying travel was something pregnant women “can consider” but added that if they needed to travel, they should take protective measures by covering up and using mosquito repellent.
