Just 10 weeks before the Games begin, the group has written an open letter to the World Health Organisation (WHO) saying new findings about the virus make staging the Olympics in Rio “unethical”.
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In a science meeting held by the World Health Organization (WHO), researchers debated over the possible link.
He was responding to a paper by a Canadian professor published earlier this month in the Harvard Public Health Review which called for the Games to be canceled or moved because it could speed the spread of Zika.
USA health officials are have warned Americans, particularly pregnant women, to consider delaying travel plans to countries – mostly in Latin America and Caribbean, including Puerto Rico – where transmission of the virus is occurring.
The WHO and United States health officials have not said the Rio games need to be postponed or canceled.
“Should that happen to poor, as-yet unaffected places (e.g., most of South Asia and Africa) the suffering can be great”, the authors wrote.
Zika has been linked with fetal brain defects like microcephaly, thus raising the stakes and prospective danger for any woman of childbearing age traveling to Rio this summer.
“The fire is already burning, but that is not a rationale not to do anything about the Olympics”, said Amir Attaran, a professor at the University of Ottawa and one of the letter’s authors.
The experts, many of whom have worked with the WHO, also voiced concerns over the relationship between the UN’s health agency and the International Olympic Committee, who they said entered an official partnership in 2010. “The best way to reduce risk of disease is to follow public health travel advice”.
The CDC’s current recommendation is that pregnant women should not travel to areas where the virus is spreading and that men with the virus who have pregnant partners should use condoms when having sex for the duration of the pregnancy. “While Zika is a new epidemic and lacks historical data, using dengue fever as a proxy, cases in Rio from January thru April 2016 are up 320% and 1150% over the same periods in 2015 and 2014, respectively”. Pregnant women who have traveled to an area with the Zika virus should talk to their doctors about testing for Zika virus.
The virus, which can be spread by mosquito bites or sexual contact, has caused birth defects in some infants whose mothers contracted Zika. In adults, it can cause neurological problems, including a rare syndrome that can be fatal or result in temporary paralysis.
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The letter is addressed to Dr. Margaret Chan, the head of the WHO.
