While many are avoiding this year’s Olympic games due to the threat of Zika virus, a recent study suggests that this is unnecessary.
Researchers out of the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) found that between just three and 37 people out of a possible 500,000 visiting Brazil for the Rio Olympics would be expected to go home with Zika. Published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the study was carried out in light of calls from 150 academics for the Olympics to be moved from Rio or called off.
“The possibility that travellers returning from the Olympics may spread Zika has become a polemic issue that has led to athletes dropping out of the event, and without evidence, undue stigmatisation of Brazil,” says Albert Ko, chair of the department of epidemiology of microbial diseases at YSPH. “This study provides data, which together with initial findings from Brazilian scientists, show that these concerns may be largely exaggerated.”
The Yale team added that it is far more likely that locals—rather than Olympic athletes and spectators—will become infected with Zika through contact with infected mosquitoes. For the paper, researchers assumed that the risk of infection for tourists was the same as for Brazilians, but visitors will be staying in air-conditioned lodgings where efforts have been made to eradicate mosquito populations.
“If anything, I would say the estimate we have published greatly overestimates the true risk,” said the study’s lead author, Joseph Lewnard. “I would expect it to be far lower than the numbers we present.”
“This study suggests that for spectators and athletes travelling to Rio this summer, the risk of contracting Zika virus is very low indeed,” says Mike Turner, the director of science and head of infection and immunobiology at the Wellcome Trust. “The same cannot be said, unfortunately, for those living in regions of active Zika transmission, and we must step up the international research effort to understand the Zika virus to enable the development of effective interventions needed to protect those most at risk.”
If your patients are hesitant to travel to Rio or other affected areas due to the outbreak, discuss this study with them. Additionally, inform them about how they may protect themselves from becoming infected with the disease, especially when it comes to mosquitoes.
