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WHO Urges Pregnant Women to Avoid Rio Olympics

Meanwhile, The International Olympic Committee said it will not be postponing, moving or cancelling the games.

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Attaran’s stance adds to the chorus of growing concerns over the Summer Games being held in Brazil, where the mosquito-borne virus is flourishing despite widespread public health attempts to stop it.

According to a statement, World Health Organization and PAHO recognize that athletes and visitors are seeking more information on the risks of Zika and ways to prevent infection while attending the 2016 Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games in the summer.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also issued a statement on Thursday, reiterating that most of those affected by the Zika virus do not experience any symptoms at all.

Brazil is now grappling with steep economic decline, while a continuing presidential impeachment attempt alongside the country’s largest ever corruption scandal has caused national outrage. “But I think that the concern can’t be over-sentimentality”.

“There are now 7,000 children that the Brazilian government is investigating for microcephaly – that’s the condition where the poor kids are born with shrunken heads and brain damage”, he said.

A backhoe removes dirt from a sewage-clogged canal that empties into the Guanabara Bay in Sao Goncalo, Brazil, April 11, 2016.

In addition, the World Health Organization advised visitors to choose accommodation with air conditioning so mosquitoes can’t get in through open windows, and to avoid visits to “impoverished and overcrowded areas in cities and towns with no piped water and poor sanitation (ideal breeding grounds of mosquitoes) where the risk of being bitten is higher”.

“The team doctor has shared with us information regarding the Zika virus, like its mode of transmission and prevention and precautions to take when we are in Rio for the Olympics”, he explained.

Prof. Attaran said that the influx of visitors to Brazil would result in the avoidable births of malformed babies. “Since then, Audrey has been prone to infection and is far removed from 100 per cent recovery of her immune system”, Leishman said in a statement through PGA Australia.

And if the Games do extend the virus’s reach, Attaran argues, scientists and health professionals have less time to work on developing and testing solutions, like a vaccine or an antiviral drug.

This is the first time golf has returned to the Olympics since 1904. “I’m not sure I’m even going to be leaving the hotel room, outside of practice”, Solo said. He said that Brazil has curtailed the problem before, only to see the disease-carrying mosquitos swarm back when public health measures-including larviciding, insecticide use, and ridding public places of still water-went lax.

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He suggested people should avoid visiting Brazil. Hai Do was the editor. Write to us in the Comments Section or share your views on our Facebook Page. In a report from 60 Minutes this week, Vitaly Stepanov, the former Russian anti-doping official turned whistleblower, disclosed that the state-sponsored program extended to the 2014 Winter Olympics, which Russia hosted in Sochi.

Marc Leishman hits his tee shot on the 11th hole during the first round of The Players Championship at the TPC Stadium course