Zika virus and the Olympics

[foxy lady 10]

I was just wondering about the impact that the Zika virus might have on athletes and spectators at the Olympics.

 

Is it really fair to expect folk to risk their health (or the health of unborn children) by hosting the Olympics in Brasil?

[I1L2T3 10]

I was just wondering about the impact that the Zika virus might have on athletes and spectators at the Olympics.

 

Is it really fair to expect folk to risk their health (or the health of unborn children) by hosting the Olympics in Brasil?

 

Extremely negative impact it is fair to assume.

[Gamston 10]

It's a no brainer . The summer Olympics should be held in London every time . Don't care where the winter Olympics are held .

[999tigger 10]

I was just wondering about the impact that the Zika virus might have on athletes and spectators at the Olympics.

 

Is it really fair to expect folk to risk their health (or the health of unborn children) by hosting the Olympics in Brasil?

 

Everyone appears to be assessing the implications of it. Imo its a far more interesting story than the migrant crisis, so am surprised/not suprised it hasnt been mentioned before. the implications could be huge because its likely to cover half of America.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/35444254

 

The most significant will be the advice issued bythe WHO to see if its considered to be a global emergency. All the other bodies will take the lead from their decision.

 

1. They seem to have a strategy to limit the mosquitos, which is all they can do as there doesnt seem to be any effective medical treatment.

 

2. Its probably too late to cancel and reorganise the Olympics.They require years of planning.

 

3. The risk is to pregnant women, so I can well see why many from non infected zones will not go to avoid that risk.

 

4. Other people outside S America will not go, even if they arent at risk.

 

5. Although personal choice I expect athletes to go, but they will get updated medical advice and I ont see them doing much sight seeing.

 

Heres a link to a guide on the virus

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35370848

[foxy lady 10]

Everyone appears to be assessing the implications of it. Imo its a far more interesting story than the migrant crisis, so am surprised/not suprised it hasnt been mentioned before. the implications could be huge because its likely to cover half of America.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/35444254

 

The most significant will be the advice issued bythe WHO to see if its considered to be a global emergency. All the other bodies will take the lead from their decision.

 

1. They seem to have a strategy to limit the mosquitos, which is all they can do as there doesnt seem to be any effective medical treatment.

 

2. Its probably too late to cancel and reorganise the Olympics.They require years of planning.

 

3. The risk is to pregnant women, so I can well see why many from non infected zones will not go to avoid that risk.

 

4. Other people outside S America will not go, even if they arent at risk.

 

5. Although personal choice I expect athletes to go, but they will get updated medical advice and I ont see them doing much sight seeing.

 

Heres a link to a guide on the virus

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35370848

 

I was puzzled by one aspect. It affects unborn children. It is also incurable. Does this mean if an athlete were to contract Zita, it could affect a pregnancy several years later?

[nikki-red 307]

I read somewhere yesterday that the advice is not to travel to affected areas if youre planning on getting pregnant in the next 2 years.

Edited January 30, 2016 by nikki-red

[foxy lady 10]

I read somewhere yesterday that the advice is not to travel to affected areas if youre planning on getting pregnant in the next 2 years.

 

That probably accounts for about 10-15% of all the female athletes.

[nikki-red 307]

I cant find the article I read, but this one states...

 

In Colombia, Health Minister Alejandro Gaviria urged women to delay pregnancies for up to eight months.

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-35388842

[999tigger 10]

I was puzzled by one aspect. It affects unborn children. It is also incurable. Does this mean if an athlete were to contract Zita, it could affect a pregnancy several years later?

 

Notwithstanding what nikki red posted I think the situation is they dont know and they are frantically trying to get to grips with what it is they are dealing with and develop a strategy.

 

As i said im surprised why this story hasnt cropped up sooner on the forums as have been following it on the BBC and the implications could be massive.

 

On one of those links it showed the spread of the virus which forst cropped up in 1954, but its since it hit Brazil in 2014 that it seems to have gone off the scale.

 

Tough choice for the athletes,worrying times for everyone in the infected areas.

 

Lets hope they develop an effective treatment sooner rather than later.

 

 

This article is quite informative on explaining the risks. Ive cut and pasted it becayse I know people dont follow links and it answers a lot of questions, notwithstanding theres still a lot they dont know and things are developing all the time.

 

 

Dear Julia: I have a trip planned to Brazil. Should I cancel because of Zika virus?

 

There's a lot of panic right now about the Zika virus — and it seems understandable.

 

For starters, this outbreak is different from, say, the Ebola scare that started two years ago. Ebola, after all, was extremely difficult to contract. Unless you exchanged bodily fluids with a person infected with the virus, you weren't going to get it.

 

Zika, by contrast, seems harder to avoid. The virus is spread by a mosquito that's common in South and Central America (as well as the southern United States and many other parts of the world). There are cases of local transmission — meaning mosquitoes are currently spreading the virus — in more than 20 countries and territories in the Americas right now, including the US territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

 

Zika is expected to reach nearly every corner of the Western Hemisphere very soon (except for Canada and Chile). And while the virus causes no symptoms in most people, it's also been linked to terrible complications: a birth defect that causes babies' brains to stop growing, as well as Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological condition that leads to paralysis.

 

All you need to do is get bitten by an infected mosquito to put yourself at risk. And since there's no cure for Zika, the only thing you can do to protect yourself is avoid mosquitoes in places where the virus is circulating.

 

That said, you don't necessarily need to move to a snowy outpost in Canada (too cold for mosquitoes) or even cancel your trip to Brazil (the center of the Zika outbreak right now). It really depends on your situation. Let's go through five different options:

1) If you're pregnant...

 

ZIKA_VIRUS_MICROCEPHALY

 

Consider postponing your trip to Zika-affected countries. Over the past year, pediatric neurologists in Brazil began to notice that some pregnant women infected with Zika have given birth to babies with a terrible birth defect called microcephaly, which is characterized by a shrunken head and incomplete brain development.

 

Since Zika arrived in Brazil in the spring of 2015, more than 4,000 cases of microcephaly have been reported in newborns born to mothers with Zika virus infection — a twentyfold increase from previous years.

Researchers are still trying to figure out how many of these birth defects were really caused by the virus, and whether the link is real (i.e., whether it's Zika and not some interaction with other viruses or environmental factor causing the damage to fetuses).

But until they do, based on the precautionary principle, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending pregnant women avoid travel to places with the virus. You can see this list for countries that currently have Zika travel advisories and expect that the CDC will keep adding more to the list as the virus spreads. And if you do cancel because of Zika, your airline may be offering a refund or credit, so make sure to ask about that.

 

2) If you're trying to get pregnant...

Proceed with caution. The CDC recommends consulting your doctor before traveling and following steps to prevent mosquito bites during the trip.

 

3) If you'd like to get pregnant someday (but not right now)...

No need to worry. Zika virus does not seem to pose a risk of birth defects for future pregnancies. As best researchers can tell, the virus clears itself from the body pretty quickly, remaining in the blood for only about a week after infection.

 

4) If you're a man with a partner who is trying to become pregnant...

It's possible that a man who travels to Brazil (say) and gets bitten by a mosquito carrying Zika could later transmit the virus through sexual intercourse. There have been two studies in the medical literature that suggest this is a risk.

 

In one case, a man who traveled to Senegal and contracted Zika gave it to his wife through intercourse after he returned home. In another, Zika was isolated from semen. But there is a lot of uncertainty here. Researchers aren't sure how long Zika can remain in semen. And it's not clear how common sexual transmission actually is. Right now the evidence is pretty limited.

 

So consider this a potential risk. If you're a man trying to get your partner pregnant, and you travel to a Zika-infected region, you'll likely want to take precautions to avoid mosquito bites. Public Health England also warns men to wear condoms for about a month after traveling in countries where Zika has spread, and those who had unexplained fevers or a diagnosis of Zika, to wear condoms for six months. (So far, the CDC has said the evidence is too limited to issue a warning about this risk.)

 

5) For everyone else...

 

There's (relatively) good news for everyone else. The vast majority of people who contract Zika virus will never know they had it. Only 20 percent of people who get Zika even show symptoms of the disease.

For those who do show symptoms, the most common include a mild, flu-like illness: a low-grade fever, head and body aches, red eyes, and a body rash. More rarely, people with Zika report abdominal pain, nausea, and diarrhea. These symptoms usually show up two to 12 days after a mosquito bite, and they tend to go away within a week. Severe disease requiring hospitalization is uncommon, and death is rare.

 

As with any virus, however, your chances of complications with the virus increase if you have underlying medical conditions.

 

And there's one final concern: Health authorities have already noted an increase in Guillain-Barré syndrome associated with Zika. This is a neurological condition where a person’s own immune system damages the nerve cells, leading to muscle weakness or paralysis. The symptoms can last weeks or months. Most people recover fully — though it can take years to do so. In rare cases, people have died.

 

Again, though, researchers are studying this link, and a direct causal relationship has not yet been established. For now it seems to be a rare but potential complication of this virus.

 

A final caveat

There's one asterisk that should be placed on all of the above. Zika only rarely affected humans before the massive outbreak in Brazil began in 2015. This means we're only just now learning about the virus's full effects. It's also possible that the virus has mutated in such a way that it's now more harmful and that it impacts people differently than it did in the past. Alternatively, it's possible that the risks of complications like microcephaly have been under- or overstated. We still need more research here.So for now, just be careful. And wear lots of bug repellent.

 

 

http://www.vox.com/2016/1/29/10867994/cancel-vacation-trip-zika-virus

Edited January 30, 2016 by 999tigger

[spilldig 187]

It's a no brainer . The summer Olympics should be held in London every time . Don't care where the winter Olympics are held .

 

O'h no. Anywhere but here. The tax payer can not give anymore. As for Brazil, i would stay away unless the problem is cleared up rapidly.

[999tigger 10]

So its an official emergency now. This is startling stuff considering this will spread to the USA. Fortunately at the moment its likely to be too cold to survive in the UK.

 

Zika-linked condition: WHO declares global emergency

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35459797

[shanes teeth 10]

That probably accounts for about 10-15% of all the female athletes.

 

I'm genuinely interested to know how you've come up with that percentage.