The Rio Olympic Games must not proceed — that is the warning from an international health expert who says the Zika virus poses a bigger threat than many authorities are willing to admit.
This week the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) issued a statement saying “athletes can head to Rio with confidence, knowing the appropriate measures are in place against Zika”.
At the same time an article published in the Harvard Public Health Review, by Professor Amir Attaran of Ottawa University, warned Zika was flourishing in the Brazilian capital and posed the potential for a global catastrophe.
Speaking to ABC NewsRadio’s The Ticket, he issued a blunt warning.
“There are now 7,000 children that the Brazilian government is investigating for microcephaly – that’s the condition where the poor kids are born with shrunken heads and brain damage,” he said.
“That sort of damage could easily spread by sending in, not just the athletes, but the 500,000 tourists from abroad to Rio where they can become infected and return to other countries, including Australia, and help spread this disease.”
He said Zika was also linked to adult conditions such as Guillain-Barre syndrome, which attacks the central nervous system.
“Rio is ground zero of the epidemic. In fact, no state in Brazil has more cases of Zika than Rio,” Professor Attaran said.
“My basic point is this, but for the Olympics, would anyone in their right mind send a half million people into the heart an epidemic to pick it up and return them to all corners of the world? Of course not, that would be foolish.
“But because of the Olympics, we’re pretending this is not a problem? That’s just too illogical and unethical for words.”
Shortly after the article in the Harvard Public Health Review became public, the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a statement saying it continued to advise the Government of Brazil and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
It did not refute any of Professor Attaran’s claims.
WHO’s position ‘incredibly irresponsible’, Attaran says
He said the WHO had warned Olympics visitors to stay away from crowds, impoverished areas and places with bad sanitation, but that was near impossible in Rio.
He described the WHO’s position as “incredibly irresponsible, disingenuous and dangerous”.
“This is a question of money corrupting the Olympic and public health worlds,” Professor Attaran said.
“These are multi-billion-dollar games, the sponsors are companies you know — McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Samsung and others — and it seems as though the money muscle has overcome the common sense.
“If we could just postpone the games or move them to somewhere else — perhaps even to Sydney — we would not be running the risk with human life.
“And we must think of those children — there’s 7,000 of them in Brazil being investigated now for microcephaly — they will never have a normal day of life.
“Is it really worth risking that for an Olympic games? Because I can tell you brain damage is no game and that’s what we are talking about.”
At the AOC’s annual general meeting last week, Australia’s most senior Olympic official, Kevan Gosper, warned there had been much focus on suggesting pregnant women should not travel to the games.
Mr Gosper said nothing had been done to warn males they could become infected and carry the virus for up to six months.
He suggested all athletes returning from Rio should be tested.
Professor Attaran’s warning was effectively dismissed by the AOC’s Medical Commission.