A team of International Olympic Committee inspectors made their final official visit to Rio a month ago, saying things were in place.
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Athletes have expressed serious concerns with participating in the Olympics. The opening ceremony set to kick off in Rio in three months.
Instead, a months-long fight over corruption and economic decay has pushed Rousseff out of power and, by a 55-22 vote, means her ally-turned-enemy Vice President Michel Temer will take over as acting president while she is suspended.
“This is a wake-up call for authorities to look at the situation more closely”, said Jimmy Whitworth, a professor of global public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, referring to Attaran’s article.
A Canadian health expert has called for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio to be postponed or delayed due to the spreading Zika virus in Brazil.
No, the official party line hasn’t changed, and there are no expectations that it will.
There is little evidence across Rio that the games are near; no advertising, few signs of Olympic paraphernalia and little talk about it. 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. The games have not only survived but thrived through a succession of various scandals, boycotts and even the 1972 Munich terrorist attack. There is no scientifically-proven connection, however, between the Zika virus and newborn microcephaly.
While Zika is largely asymptomatic in adults, and causes only mild symptoms in those who feel anything at all, scientists have found that the strain of Zika now spreading through Latin America can cause severe brain damage in unborn children when entering the bloodstream of a pregnant woman. The IOC points out the World Health Organization hs not issued any travel bans.
“These will be Brazil’s games”. University of Ottawa professor Amir Attaran, who specializes in public health, said in an article published this week in the Harvard Public Health Review.
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WHO/PAHO will continue to monitor the Zika virus transmission and risks in Brazil and in other affected areas to provide updates on how Zika virus outbreaks, risks and prevention interventions develop between now and August and beyond. The country is predicted to win about 25 medals this time – its best-ever showing and cracking the top 10 – but Olympic interest pales alongside soccer’s World Cup. When the IOC declared Rio a “safe environment” for the Olympic Games in January this year, it was nothing more than an assumption because it wasn’t until February that Brazil’s Ministry of Health decided to make Zika a “notifiable” disease and began counting the cases. Solo, who was the starting goalkeeper in the last two Games, said this was a major factor in her decision to attend the Games.
