Britain’s leading expert on the Zika virus yesterday rejected a call by 150 international academics for this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro to be postponed because of the dangers posed by the disease. By comparison with these routine activities, the increased risk that the Olympics poses is a drop in the ocean.” In an open letter to the World Health Organisation (WHO), released on Friday, the group of academics said the Brazilian strain of Zika virus harmed health in ways that science had not observed before. Brazil was affected by many tropical diseases – including malaria and dengue – that were all clinically more serious than Zika, he said. But Farrar, a specialist in tropical medicine, told the Observer yesterday that the risks did not warrant such a drastic course of action.

Source: The Guardian May 28, 2016 19:52 UTC