New research attempting to calculate the risk of the zika virus at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro "may reassure organizers and many of the more than 500,000 athletes and fans expected to travel to the epicenter of the epidemic," according to Julie Steenhuysen of REUTERS. Controversy about the global gathering in August "has grown as more about the disease becomes known." The debate has "played out largely in the absence of models calculating the risk to tourists attending the Olympics." New projects "suggest the risk is small." One São Paulo-based research group "predicted the Rio Olympics would result in no more than 15 zika infections among the foreign visitors expected to attend the event." But a team of U.S. government epidemiologists calculated that Olympics visitors would "account for .25 percent of the total risk of spreading Zika through air travel." That was based on '15 data showing about 240 million people "moved to and from areas that now have active transmission." U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Global Migration & Quarantine Dir Martin Cetron said, "Even if the Games were totally shut off and stopped, and the whole thing were canceled, 99 percent of that risk is still ongoing" (REUTERS, 6/7).
CONSIDER THE EVIDENCE: REUTERS' Stephanie Nebehay reported the World Health Organization's Emergency Committee on zika "will meet early next week to consider new evidence and review its recommendations." The WHO has "rejected a call by more than 100 scientists for the Rio Games to be moved or postponed due to the threat from the zika outbreak." The WHO, in a statement that did not mention the Rio Games, said that the "experts' teleconference will be held on June 14" (REUTERS, 6/7).
PLAYING DOWN THE FEARS: REUTERS' Nivedita Shankar reported Brazil Sports Minister Leonardo Picciani "expects there to be almost no cases of the zika virus during the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, adding that the country is prepared for the Games, despite health concerns and political instability." Picciani: "We hosted 43 test events in Rio with 7,000 athletes and we have not had any case of zika or dengue. We had 4,300 cases in April, which fell to 700 in May and there will be another significant reduction in June or July, and in August it will be very close to zero. All the mechanism of prevention and protection are guaranteed" (REUTERS, 6/7).
