A new round of testing by the AP shows Rio's Olympic waterways "are as rife with
pathogens far offshore as they are nearer land, where raw sewage flows
into them from fetid rivers and storm drains," according to Brad Brooks of the AP. That means "there is no
dilution factor in the bay or lagoon where events will take place and no
less risk to the health of athletes like sailors competing farther from
the shore." Kristina
Mena, an expert in waterborne viruses and an associate professor of
public health at the University of Texas Health Science Center at
Houston, said, "Those virus
levels are widespread. It's not just along the shoreline but it's
elsewhere in the water, therefore it's going to increase the exposure of
the people who come into contact with those waters. We're talking about an extreme environment, where the
pollution is so high that exposure is imminent and the chance of
infection very likely." In
July, the AP reported that "its first round of tests showed
disease-causing viruses directly linked to human sewage at levels up to
1.7 million times what would be considered highly alarming in the U.S.
or Europe." The results "sent shockwaves through the global athletic community, with sports officials pledging to do their own viral testing." Olympic and World Health Organization officials "flip-flopped on promises to carry out viral testing." Now, the AP's most recent tests since August show not only no improvement in water quality -- but that the water "is even more widely contaminated than previously known." The number of viruses found over a kilometer from the shore in Guanabara Bay, where sailors compete at high speeds and get utterly drenched, "are equal to those found along shorelines closer to sewage sources." Mena said, "The levels of viruses are so high in these Brazilian waters that if we saw those levels here in the United States on beaches, officials would likely close those beaches" (AP, 12/2).
