Should they change the Olympic game venue?

Absolutely. Which is why it would make sense to hold the Games when the risk of mosquito bites is at its minimum. Win, win - and the Games would also gain...

That's good then. Thanks Elegran. What is being done about Zika then? Irrespective of the games these people need help now.

No it isn't, jollyg That is an urban myth.

"To set the record straight: Eighty percent of WHO's budget now comes from governments. For the two-year budget period 2010-11, 53 percent of the voluntary contributions came directly from governments that chose to go beyond what their annual dues require; 21 percent came from other UN bodies (such as UNICEF, UNDP, and UNAIDS) and other multilateral bodies (such as the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization); 18 percent from philanthropic foundations (such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UN Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation). Of the remainder, seven percent came from nongovernmental organizations, by far the largest of which was Rotary International for work on polio eradication."

"For the entire year, just one percent came from private industry. And roughly half of that comprised a specific donation from local organizations in Japan to finance costs of a WHO office in Kobe. The other half came from pharmaceutical companies that directed their funds toward neglected and tropical diseases." www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2011-11-18/setting-record-straight-who-funding

WHO is funded by the Pharma cos.

When Ebola took hold in E Arica they sat on their hands and did nothing.

Same will happen in Brazil.!

I do hoe not

Irrespective of whether the games goes ahead or not, many spectators are likely to cancel their plans to attend. Hard luck financially for Brazil. The Olympics are not worth it. The clue is in the title 'games' - they are only games which don't actually need to be played! I have unfortunately seen enough of both Guillaume Barre syndrome and Microcephaly to make me feel strongly about this.

As I understand it there are a lot of these specific mosquitos (A.aegypti & A. albopictus) around but not all of them are infected with the virus outside of certain areas. But if a human carrier of the virus gets bitten by one of these mosquitos then the virus will take hold in the mosquito who in turn passes it on to the next human it bites.

So it's a two way process and humans who become infected in, for example, Brazil, can carry the virus to their home country where it can then spread into the mosquito population in that country,

It's only a risk to pregnant women, and is only transmitted by mosquitoes, not diect human to human contact.
Most people who are infected don't even know they have the virus.

I agree with Annie and jingl

I don't think they were planning on changing the venue. All that was suggested was to hold it in a period that had a LOT FEWER mozzies.

It's a difficult one. Brazil needs the Olympics now, having spent a fortune on it. It should never have been given to the country in the first place but we are where we are. The Games will either have to go ahead there or be abandoned. If they don't take place in Brazil, the country must be compensated. Don't ask me how.
I'm particularly concerned about my son and his family making their 2 yearly visit next year.

Impossible to change the venue , and cancel it and years of training by the athletes gone

The sex? for obvious reasons.... What if you get pregnant when you have the virus in your body - so avoid getting pregnant. I understand the virus is also transmitted through bodily fluids

I think it would be inadvisable to travel to Rio. Zika virus in a healthy adult is usually mild but can trigger Guillan-Barre syndrome. The advice to avoid mosquito bites sounds sensible but the reality of 100% protection from bites is not realistic.

The virus seems to have been around for a long time...as with Ebola something is only being done about it now that it may affect the richer nations. The only thing I did owner though was that, if it inhibits cell growth might it be harnessed in some way to treat cancer which has happened (I believe but may be totally wrong) with thalidomide. I did warn my son not to go to that part of the world for his honeymoon and he did, thankfully listen to me.

Golfer Rory McIlroy says he might not go. He is going to wait on medical advice. The whole scenario is like something biblical. The whole world sends people to the Olympics, and they carry the virus back to their own countries.

I don't understand why - if it is spread by a mosquito- they have advised people not to go if they are pregnant & not to have unprotected sex. I heard on Radio 4 that this was the best way to avoid it. Obviously the pregnant bit but why the sex?

Of course, they should. The whole world will be represented - then they carry it back to their own countries! Imagine an epidemic of micro-cephalic children in the already poor and disadvantaged parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the rest of South America and Mesa-America, the Far East.... It doesn't bear thinking.
Though people who should know better have said that it was carried by the malarial mosquito. It DOES NOT!!! it is a completely different type of mozzie.

Its not so much the athletes but the thousands of spectators flying in to the country and back to their homes all round the world that is the concern. The massive increase in numbers doing this is far beyond the normal volume of air traffic.

The virus is spreading rapidly throughout south and Central America and as far north as Mexico. It's only a matter of time before reported cases in the southern states of the USA and then there will be an outcry.

the spread of the virus by May 2016

It shouldn't been moved , people fly in and out of thst country every day, why has there not been a world wide epidemic ?

As for AIDS transmission caused by the Olympics, the athletes must have been so sexuly active I am amazed they had the energy to compete

Synonymous is right that a decision should have been made months ago.

It is a shame for the athletes but I was hearing that AIDS transmission was accelerated around the world after one particular olympics. I don't think it should be risked.

too cruel

It would be on cruel on Brazil to change it. Bloke on radio says it can last in bodily fluids for a few months so the men should just make sure they make no one pregnant for six months or so. People are travelling all the time.

I think the WHO is being pressured by the financial investors in the games ,come out in favour of continuing because of political involvment. Smacks of corruption in high places.

I'm not a sports fan, but..... where could they possibly move it to? I heard on Radoi 4 this morning, it's not without precedence as the Womens' Football World Cup in China (?) a few decades ago was moved because of fears of a pandemic, but with the greatest respect to the girls , the numbers involved in those days were nothing like today's Olympics. ... or even today's women's football in the last few years. It's a real problem, and not just logistically .... The obvious answer, if the risk is so high, would be to cancel the whole event but there will be hundreds of athletes who have devoted so many years of training for these 2 weeks in Rio .......so, what is the answer??