The WHO has rejected a call by 150 medical experts for the 2016 Olympic Games to be moved or postponed, saying it would not alter the spread of the zika virus.
Advertisement
“We make this call despite the widespread fatalism that the Rio 2016 Games are inevitable or ‘too big to fail, ‘” the writers said on Friday in the letter addressed to WHO Director-General Margaret Chan.
The fourth and fifth travel-related cases of Zika virus have been reported in Alabama.
Brazil is considered ‘ground zero’ in the battle against the Zika virus and Rio de Janeiro has been hardest hit.
Both organizations also said that Zika has now been identified in some 60 countries and territories and that travel between these countries has continued.
“People continue to travel between these countries and territories for a variety of reasons”.
The WHO insists that the best way of reducing the risk of disease is to follow public health advice.
“WHO must revisit the question of Zika and postponing and/or moving the Games”, the letter concludes.
“Based on the current assessment of the Zika virus circulating in nearly 60 countries globally and 39 in the Americas, there is no public health justification for postponing or cancelling the games”, it said.
The Rio Olympics are due to take place between August 5 and August 21.
Security problems in the city were heightened again this week after Brazilian police said they were hunting more than 30 men suspected of raping a teenage girl in Rio de Janeiro and putting a video of it on social media.
In pregnant women, Zika virus is associated with fetal loss and congenital microcephaly, a medical condition in which the size of the infant’s head is smaller than normal because the brain has not developed properly.
The other new case involves a pregnant women and is travel related, but the state does not disclose where pregnant women who test positive for the illness reside.
The letter cites concerns about further spread of the virus and developing information about it in calling for the Games to be delayed or moved.
“I believe in informed consent”, Caplan said in an interview.
He said: “There is no public health reason to cancel or delay the Olympics”.
Brazil has been at the epicenter of the Zika virus, with infectious disease experts descending on the hardest-hit areas to investigate why it’s spreading and why it has resulted in babies being born with microcephaly.
The scientists also express concern that the World Health Organization has a conflict of interest because of its partnership with the International Olympics Committee (IOC), which also received a copy of the letter.
“Not doing so casts doubt on WHO’s neutrality”, it said.
Advertisement
Medics have also warned that with hundreds of thousands of people set to go to the Olympics, it could help the disease spread across the world.
