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The Australian Olympic team’s medical director has said the threat posed to athletes by the Zika virus is minimal.
With calls for the Olympics to be moved from Rio in light of the spread of the virus, Dr David Hughes said Australian athletes shouldn’t be deterred by Zika, so long as they follow the medical advice provided to them.
“If individuals take reasonable care as instructed, then I believe the risk to our team members will be minimal. The last couple of people that I have spoken to, who have been to Rio in the past month or two, haven’t seen a mosquito,” said Dr Hughes.
“If an Australian Olympic team member does become unwell, then if they follow the advice in our advisory, the consequences of that infection will be minimal.”
Dr Hughes’ advice comes on the heels of a Harvard Public Health Review paper which raised serious concerns about the public’s wellbeing should the Games go ahead.
“Mass migration into the heart of an outbreak is a public health no-brainer,” wrote Dr Amir Attaran.
“Given the choice between accelerating a dangerous new disease or not – for it is impossible that Games will slow Zika down – the answer should be a no-brainer for the Olympic organisers too. Putting sentimentality aside, clearly the Rio 2016 Games must not proceed.”
But Dr Hughes was adamant the threat posed to athletes by Zika isn’t considerable.
“It is certainly less than ideal to send half a million people into an area where there is an active infectious disease outbreak. You can almost guarantee that some of those people will become ill. You can almost guarantee that it will increase the speed at which the disease spreads around the world.
However I believe the Australian Olympic team is as well-prepared as it can be to prevent Zika infection and/or minimise the consequences.”
The outbreak of Zika occurred in Brazil in 2015 and has led to a rise in Guillain-Barré syndrome and an increasing number of babies born with microcephaly – a defect where an infant’s head is smaller than usual due to improper brain development.
And while Dr Hughes believes the Australian athletes travelling to Rio won’t be at a significant risk from Zika, he did admit it is a serious concern for locals.
“Whenever I talk about Zika I try to be a bit mindful and respectful of the fact the Brazilian people are facing a significant health challenge they can’t escape from,” he said.
“Our team is going to be flying in there for three weeks and then leaving.”