The World Health Organization has rejected a call to move or postpone the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro over concerns about the Zika virus outbreak.
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WHO said moving or postponing the Games would “not significantly alter” the spread of the virus, which can lead to babies being born with underdeveloped brains, following an open letter to the global health authority from more than 100 leading scientists who said new findings about Zika made it “unethical” for the Games to go ahead. The healthcare professionals pointed out the potential risk of Zika virus outbreak in Brazil in their letter which the World Health Organization later rejected.
Prof Attaran alleges that WHO, which has close links to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) via a variety of shared health-based initiatives, are “fatally compromised” in their judgements, and don’t want to upset “big sport” by declaring the Games unsafe.
But the World Health Organization said canceling the Rio Games wouldn’t “significantly alter” the global spread of the disease.
Almost 1,300 babies have been born in Brazil with the irreversible defect since the mosquito-borne Zika began circulating there previous year. In adults, it can cause neurological problems, including a rare syndrome that can be fatal or result in temporary paralysis.
Between February and April 2016, Brazil’s Ministry of Health registered 91,387 cases suspected of being related to the Zika virus.
The Olympics has never been moved for a public health reason, although the Women’s World Cup was moved to the United States from China due to fears over the Sars epidemic, notes the BBC.
The official logo for the Rio 2016 Olympics games displays during a press conference of Two Years to Go to the Rio 2016 Olympics Opening Ceremony on August 4, 2014 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“How about those people living there, you know?”
“He restated the WHO’s warning that women who are pregnant or seek to get pregnant should not travel to the Zika zone or be exposed to returning partners who may have been infected”.
And Ennis’s coach Toni Minichiello said: ‘I think there’s a reluctance to talk about it, but I have to believe it is being taken seriously, I do believe they’re taking it seriously, you just hope it is.
“I’d say that people should take proper precautions and if there are male athletes who are thinking about having children for example then they should think twice because of the sexual transmission risk issue”.
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The Olympics and Paralympics, set for August 5 through September 18, “will take place during Brazil’s wintertime when there are fewer active mosquitoes and the risk of being bitten is lower”, the World Health Organization said this month. Although the outbreak began one year ago, Brazil has yet to present a program to effectively eradicate the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the main transmitter of the Zika virus.
