Zika: Rio Safe For Olympic Athletes, Says Brazilian Embassy Minister

By Vikneswaran A/L Raman KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 (Bernama) -- The Brazilian Embassy in Malaysia has assured athletes participating in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics that it is safe to come to the country despite the Zika outbreak. Its Minister Counsellor Daniel Falcon Lins said, "I dare to say the chances of someone visiting Brazil to participate or watch the Olympics being infected by Zika are much smaller compared to many of the countries affected with the outbreak". "We are going a long way to avoid the cases. No country is taking as many precautions as Brazil. "As efforts to make vaccine are still in the initial stage, what we can do now is to fight the mosquitoes, the carrier of the virus," he told Bernama in an interview here. He said the Brazilian government had taken persistent steps to control the mosquito population and combat the virus including stationing officials at housing areas at the games city. The Olympics and Paralympics games would be held in August and September when Brazil is having its winter, during which the temperature is significantly lower, restricting the Aedes species mosquitoes from breeding, he said. About 220,000 armed forces and 300,000 health department personnel as well as volunteers in Brazil have joined hands to destroy breeding grounds of the deadly vector in the country of 3.288 million square miles, added Lins. Zika was first discovered in the 1950s, where a series of cases had been recorded in Africa, Americas, Asia and the Pacific, but the current outbreak, first detected in Brazil in May last year, has reached more than 35 countries mainly in South America and the Caribbean. "The Brazil government is very transparent in Zika; the government reveals any information and latest development of the outbreak like the linkage of microcephaly (abnormal brain development of newborns), even though we know it will give a negative impact in the short term. "We are aware of the responsibility not only for us but for all the countries on the planet because Zika is a type of virus that can be found in many countries in world. "But these are real information not panic, ignorance or any kind of information," the diplomat said. Lins said 80 percent of the more than 1.5 million people across Brazil that had been infected might not even realise they had the virus. The most common symptoms of Zika infection are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes), which begin two to seven days after a bite by an infected mosquito and the patients usually only need plenty of rest, enough fluids, and simple medicine for pain and fever. However, the biggest fear is for pregnant ladies and those who are planning for babies, because the virus is said to cause microcephaly, a condition defined by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the Zika outbreak a global emergency; however, its director Dr Margaret Chan after visiting Brazil said the virus should not affect international travel or prevent a successful Rio Olympics, the first ever to be held in South America. Lin advised the 10,500 athletes representing 206 countries in the multisport event from Aug 5-21 to take extra precautions against mosquito bites while, noting that a few entities around the world, including a Malaysian company are respectively working to come up with a vaccine for the virus. -- BERNAMA