Attendees at the Olympic games are at low risk for contracting the Zika virus because they’ll be held during Brazil’s winter season, public health officials said Wednesday.
While there’s been spectulation about whether it’s safe for people to attend the Olympics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention isn’t recommending that visitors cancel their trips. Instead, the agency said only pregnant women should not attend the games and everyone else should take steps to prevent mosquito bites both during travel and for three weeks afterwards, and should also take steps to prevent sexual transmission.
Between 350,000 and 500,000 visitors and athletes from 207 countries are expected to attend the games, but they represent just a small fraction of the total estimated travel volume to Zika-affected countries this year, less than a quarter of a percent.
The CDC is, however, issuing an extra warning to travelers from Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea and Yemen, saying those countries have environmental conditions favorable to mosquito-borne transmission of Zika and a population that’s susceptible.
