As teams continue to prepare for the Rio Olympics billed for August, there are strong indications that the event may be postponed, cancelled or shifted to another venue if recommendations by professor Amir Attaran of the School of Public Health University of Ottawa, Canada is anything to go by.
Professor Attaran submitted in his commentary published in the Harvard Public Review, that the Zika infection is “more dangerous, and more extensive” than scientists had recently believed. So he advises postponing, relocating or canceling the games.
Brazil is typically considered Zika’s “ground zero,” and the disease causes cases of severe birth defects in infants, as well as high fever and muscle pain in adults.
Attaran’s study was published earlier this week even as the World Health Organization is expected to release a statement advising travel precautions related to the Olympic Games soon.
Dr. Richard E. Besser, ABC News's chief health and medical editor, highlighted five things that report author Amir Attaran identifies in defense of such a drastic recommendation: Rio's proximity to the disease; the dangers associated with this particular strain; the increase in tourism that will risk spreading the Zika virus to other countries; the short amount of time health officials will have to develop control measures; and, finally, what Attaran calls the irresponsibility in placing sports above public health.
Centre for Disease control and Prevention (CDC) listed Brazil among countries and Territories with Active Zika Virus Transmission. Cape Verde is the only African country in the list.
The Zika virus is spread by bites of infected mosquitoes in the Aedes genus. Zika virus was first discovered in 1947 and is named after the Zika Forest in Uganda
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