The Olympic Games in Rio and other locations in Brazil will welcome hundreds of thousands of spectators from all over the world. If a traveler is infected with the Zika virus, which is transferred by the Aedes mosquitoes or during sexual intercourse, the likelihood of a global emergence of the disease is increased.
Discovered initially in Uganda in 1947, the virus was subsequently reported in many African and Asian countries, including India, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. However, it was in 2015 that the virus began its epidemic spread in Latin America.
Brazil is currently considered a region where the probability of Zika infection is the highest.
"In particular, it cannot possibly help when an estimated 500,000 foreign tourists flock into Rio for the Games, potentially becoming infected, and returning to their homes where both local Aedes mosquitoes and sexual transmission can establish new outbreaks," Dr. Attaran said in an article published by the Harvard Public Health Review.
The Zika virus is widely believed to be related to the rise of microcephaly cases in recent years. According to UNICEF's statistics, 147 cases of newborn microcephaly were registered during 2014 in Brazil. That number spiked to an alarming 4180 cases between October 2015 and February 2016. There is no scientifically-proven connection, however, between the Zika virus and newborn microcephaly.
Other proposed causes of the microcephaly spike in Brazil include the widespread use of toxic pesticides and the use of unsafe vaccines administered to pregnant women.
The Zika virus, however, is not the only problem facing the upcoming games. Brazil is currently struggling with an ongoing political drama in the form of an impeachment attempt atop the country's largest-ever corruption scandal. As if that were not enough to hamstring the enormous logistical challenge of the Olympic Games, there are severe water pollution problems and a consistently high rate of gang violence in many urban areas in the country.
