The World Health Organization is expected to release a statement advising travel precautions related to the Olympics soon.
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Dr. Budgett was responding to a call by Canadian health Professor Amir Attaran for the Games to be postponed or moved.
“If the International Olympic Committee and the World Health Organization do not have the generosity of heart to delay the games to prevent children being born and disabled their whole lives, then they’re among the cruelest institutions in the world”, Attaran told AP.
Normally considered a worldwide festival of joy, unity, and celebration, this August’s Olympic games have already been tarnished by the specter of the mosquito-borne Zika virus. The choice should be a “no-brainer”, but don’t hold your breath.
The continued presence of the virus ahead of the summer Olympics has caused athletes and health specialists to question the risks involved in allowing the Games to go ahead with hundreds of thousands of spectators travelling to the city.
The deadly Zika virus that has ravaged Brazil has led to a warning from a Canadian health expert that the 2016 Rio Olympics could lead to a public health disaster.
“Simply put, Zika infection is more unsafe, and Brazil’s outbreak more extensive, than scientists reckoned a short time ago”. Writing in an article posted to the Harvard Public Health Review this week, Attaran argues for postponing or moving the Rio Olympics.
The virus, which is carried by mosquitoes, is a congenital condition which can seriously damage the unborn babies of pregnant women, resulting in abnormally small heads. On Tuesday, she said she’d be going to Rio, despite her concerns about the virus.
Rio de Janeiro, which will host the Olympics, has so far recorded 26,000 suspected Zika cases – the highest of any state in Brazil.
“It’s that the WHO has got into bed with one of the most money-fueled and notoriously corrupt organizations, the International Olympic Committee, and consequently they’re not being honest about the global health danger and they’re putting the world’s at health risk knowingly, because they don’t want to disturb that handshake”, says Attaran of the statement.
“Given the choice between accelerating a risky disease or not – for it is impossible the games will slow Zika down – the answer should be a no-brainer for the Olympic organizers, too”, Attaran wrote.
Attaran pointed out that cases of dengue – spread by the same mosquitoes that spread Zika – have jumped sixfold this year despite Brazil’s aggressive efforts to wipe out the insects, adding there is no evidence Zika transmission will disappear by the time the games start in August.
Attaran concludes, saying that letting the Games go on in the current context violates what the Olympics stand for.
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No countries with ongoing Zika virus epidemics competed in the World Cup, while four Pacific Island countries that did have ongoing Zika virus outbreaks competed in the canoe races, notes Didier Musso of the Institut Louis Malardé in Tahiti.
