Earlier Saturday, the World Health Organization rejected a call from 150 health experts to consider postponing or moving the August 5-21 Olympics.
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WHO, however, said that “based on current assessment, cancelling or changing the location of the 2016 Olympics will not significantly alter the worldwide spread of Zika virus”.
At least 100 prominent scientists said in an open letter to World Health Organization that new findings about the Zika virus made it “unethical” for the games to go ahead.
Its statement yesterday made no direct reference to the health experts’ letter, which also highlighted a decades-long collaboration between the WHO and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The WHO’s advice is that pregnant women should not travel to areas with Zika virus transmission, including Rio de Janeiro.
“We make this call despite the widespread fatalism that the Rio 2016 Games are inevitable or ‘too big to fail, ‘” the letter reads.
” We reside in an exceptionally interconnected world, global travel and trade are day-to-day activities that provide Zika virus a chance to spread out”, said Jonathan Ball, professor of molecular virology at the U.K.’s University of Nottingham.
Zika infection in pregnant women has been shown to be a cause of the birth defect microcephaly and other serious brain abnormalities in babies.
Between February and April 2016, Brazil’s Ministry of Health registered 91,387 cases suspected of being related to the Zika virus.
Hugh Pennington, one of Scotland’s foremost experts on viruses, also told the Sunday Herald that athletic governing bodies, from competing nations, should threaten to pull out of this summer’s Olympics unless the Brazilian authorities can guarantee that they will be able to control the mosquito population.
According to the WHO, there is no justification around public health to pull the games out of Rio or postpone them.
The Olympics are set to start in just 69 days and as The Guardian noted, the Olympic torch is already touring Brazil on its way to the opening ceremonies.
“An unnecessary risk is posed when 500,000 foreign tourists from all countries attend the Games, potentially acquire that strain, and return home to places where it can become endemic”, the letter said. They added that they “recommend that WHO convene an independent group to advise it and the International Olympic Committee in a transparent, evidence-based process in which science, public health, and the spirit of sport come first”.
And the risks to public health are great, they argue in the letter. The IOC also joined with World Health Organization in maintaining that there is no compelling reason to alter the course of the games.
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Since the outbreak began in Brazil a year ago, the disease has spread to 58 countries around the world and the WHO has declared a global health emergency.
