The Zika virus’ presence in the 2016 Olympic Games host city of Rio de Janeiro remains a concern for all athletes, coaches, spectators and media traveling to Brazil less than 60 days from now.
For most people infected with the virus, which is spread via mosquitoes, they experience symptoms such as mild fever, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain and rash. However, on the more serious end of the symptom spectrum, Zika is also linked to both Guillain-Barré syndrome in adults, as well as microcephaly in pregnant women. Microcephaly results in babies being born with abnormally small heads and brain underdevelopment.
Fear of such symptoms have resulted in some NBC employees refusing to travel to Rio as part of the network’s Olympic broadcast coverage.
Said one NBC employee, “It’s very simple,”“I have a family. I have small children and for me, at least, the trip seems too risky. I might want to get pregnant soon.” (NY Daily News)
“The safety of our team members is always our first priority,” an NBC Sports spokesperson said.
“NBCUniversal’s medical department has advised all of our Olympic personnel to consult with their personal physicians, and continues to provide the latest information from the CDC and WHO, including basic prevention steps. No NBC personnel assigned to work in Rio will be required to travel if they believe their personal health or safety is at risk,” the network rep said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public health state of emergency earlier this year and a vaccine is said to still be at least a year away.
Its not Ebola. And if its only spread through mosquitos and sexual contact then I dont see how traveling there is going to impact anything unless you are pregnant. So just pack some mosquito repellant and long sleeve shirts and go if you want to go. No problem stay home if you are worried but stop telling everyone the sky is falling.
The problem is that because it is sexually transmitted, a man could potentially travel to another country (or back home to his) and could infect his already pregnant partner, or infect someone who later becomes pregnant. And I don’t know about this virus, but many viruses STAY in your system (sometimes permanently) , even if you are not experiencing symptoms at the moment.
That being said, I think if people attending the games slather themselves with a powerful bug repellent, they will probably be okay. I am more worried about the open water swimmers– they have found deadly antibiotic resistant bacteria in many beaches and bodies of water in Rio.
If a man has a pregnant wife and has recently traveled to a country with Zika, he can use condoms for 8 weeks (or even until his child is born to be safe) and there will be very little risk of transmitting Zika, if he even has it, to his pregnant wife. As long as people are smart about this, traveling to Brazil shouldn’t be a problem.
zika is farce … after zika was unmasked and now are in h1n1 to profit of laboratory..zika with microcephaly and many Brazilians are not worried because the government of President Dilma wants to use the scapegoat to try to divert attention of the Brazilian public zika with concern, but many Brazilians already agreed. His government is Involved in Several scandals of corruption with Several members of his party and imprisoned allies. zika with microcephaly only finds only place in Pernambuco state in northeastern Brazil and the region in other states of Brazil is not is almost zero. test only met zika only 16 babies over 4000 cases. in colombia there more cases of zika than in Brazil are more 5000… Read more »
This article does not mention that 80% of people do not experience any Zika related problems nor do they know they were infected.
Guillain-Barré syndrome is very serious but only ties to Zika in handful of cases. With regular anti-mosquito repellent and smart behavior, non except expecting mothers or women who want to be pregnant in the hear future should be worried too much. Zika is coming to Texas anyway…
How about SwimSwam staffers – were y’all planning on having people go down?
Before imply with zika it’s a scam, but all work on the Olympics are almost ready and doubted that Dima would suffer impeachment and political climate in Brazil is very well now without dilma. world cup in rio de janeiro was a complete success and securely public.
Olympic Games will be held in the winter and the mosquitoes does not play and the rio de janeiro is far from the epicenter Which is northeast of Brazil. It is over 2000 kilometers away. Olympic Games of Rio de Janeiro is the cheapest of all three last editions and the budget stipulated that Followed strictly. Rio2016 will not be 100%, but beautiful, the happened in the World Cup.
… Read more »
Zika is Diima’s fault? Bad Diima.
rare or know anyone ever heard of someone with zika in Rio de Janeiro.
Okay, unpopular question/opinion alert, but unless you are a pregnant woman, what is the big deal about Zika? I mean obviously you’d prefer to avoid it if possible, but there’s a zero percent mortality rate, it goes away in a week or two tops, and the symptoms are essentially those of a moderate allergy. So why is this being reported on like it’s Ebola?
It’s a lot worse than initial prognostications. This article (link) outlines four real persuasive reasons why the Games are a bad idea.
Additionally, those two weeks can potentially be not so much fun (link). From that article: “It wasn’t a cold. A cold, you have a sneeze, have a headache, take a couple Tylenol and you’re done. You don’t have a cold for two weeks, you don’t have a bodyache for two weeks, you don’t have headaches, throwing up, weaknesses for two weeks.”
And Guillain-Barré syndrome is NOT something you want. Briefly, it’s “a condition in which the immune system attacks the nerves” and I know someone who just… Read more »
maybe SARS or swine flu would have been better comparisons. But thanks for the info.
Potentially carrying the virus to another place is the big deal. Currently, it is known to be transmitted only by the Anopheles mosquito, and, in rare instances, sexual contact. It already has spread widely through the Americas due to the movement of infected individuals.
It’s not spread by the anopheles mosquito. Anopheles spread malaria. Zika (and yellow fever and Dengue Fever) are spread by Aedes Aegypti mosquitos.
Just wanted to clarify.
Because it doesn’t seem well understood, and can be sexually transmitted, even after symptoms have abated (which coincidentally, is a shared trait with ebola)
boomer was born at the right time
All they have to do is pack some Raid or Off bug spray and the mosquitoes won’t bother them.
Really?
Really JOEL LIN. are these mosquitoes immune to insecticide?
Do some research people. Read number #1 on this list. It’s not stay home and be scared????
http://www.rd.com/health/wellness/avoid-zika-mosquito-bites/
rare or know anyone ever heard of someone with zika in Rio de Janeiro…
You have to realize Joao that many in the American culture love to influence behavior and the media often overreacts to events like this. Once this happens it’s just a matter of time before the politicians come asking for money to fight the virus and of course on queue the Obama administration asking for $1.8 billion to fight this virus. This money then becomes a poltical slush fund and rumor has it that $500 million of that money already redirected to the UN’s climate change fund.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/02/09/us/politics/obama-congress-funding-combat-zika-virus.html
You’ll see a few people on here that look into it and realize it’s being hyped. like psycho mentioned 80% not effected by it and like you… Read more »
Not sure why you are being downvoted, this is 100% true. I’m a college swimmer currently doing research for the summer in South America in an area where Dengue is highly prevalent (Dengue and Zika are spread by the same A. Aegypti vector), and when we go into the field to collect mosquitos for the lab in the homes of people who have been diagnosed positively, we are simply told to wear long sleeves and lots of mosquito repellent. Also, the culture/mentality about mosquito-borne diseases down here is very interesting because literally no one we have interviewed has shown any distress or concern about either disease (Dengue is symptomatically a tad worse than Zika, too, and more often can result… Read more »