Risk of zika during Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games is minimal, says Brazilian health minister
Number of registered cases in Rio de Janeiro fell by 90 per cent between February and May, as weather cooled
Climatic conditions in Rio during the Games will not be conducive to the spread of zika (Photo: Getty Images/Matthew Stockman)
The risk of the zika virus being spread during the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games is minimal, the Brazilian health minister said on Friday (10 June). After a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs offices in Rio de Janeiro, Ricardo Barros said the number of new cases registered in the city fell from 2,116 in the third week of February to 208 in the first week of May, a reduction of 90 per cent.
The decline in cases appears to reflect the fact that the prevalence of the mosquito that transmits the virus drops dramatically during the cooler and dryer months in Brazil, as outlined by Rio 2016's chief medical officer earlier this week. February is summer in the southern hemisphere while May is autumn and August and September, when the Games will be staged, are winter.
"The municipal, state and federal governments are working together to ensure that people can watch the Games without risk," said Barros, who confirmed that that Ministry of Health has invested an extra R$19.5 million (US$5.7 million) to guarantee the well-being of athletes and spectators during the Games.
"Brazil is in one of the regions in the world with the lowest rates of circulation of the zika virus in the period of the Games," Barros said. The minister said the government's increased prevention activities combined with the lower temperatures in Rio during the Games should result in a much lower proliferation of the aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits the zika, dengue and chinkungunya.
Ricardo Barros speaks to the media in Rio on Friday (Photo: Rio 2016/Saulo Pereira Guimarães)
Favourable climatic conditions
August is cool and dry in Rio, conditions which are not favourable to aedes aegypti. In an article published in the June edition of Brazilian scientific journal Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, the authors highlighted this as one of the main reasons that the Games should go ahead as planned.
The researchers said that pregnant women should avoid travelling to countries with known zika transmission, but concluded that "the recommendation for the general public is to attend normally, while paying attention to the instructions from WHO and the Brazilian Health authorities."
On Tuesday (June 7), health officials said the number of people infected with zika during the Rio 216 Games should be close to zero. In May, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said there is no public health justification for postponing or cancelling the Games.
In an article he wrote earier this week, Rio 2016's chief medical officer João Grangeiro said: "The WHO, the IOC and Rio 2016 would never put the health of athletes or tourists that will visit the city at risk. We are carrying out the organisation of the Games responsibly and with a thorough understanding of the complexity of our mission."
