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As next week's Opening Ceremonies approach, doctors from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said those traveling to Rio for the Olympics will be at low risk of contracting the Zika virus, but the officials still advised pregnant women or women who could get pregnant not to attend the Games.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Marty Cetron, citing information from the Brazilian health ministry, said the country has seen a significant reduction of Zika since the occurrences peaked in February and March. Cooler, dryer weather has been a major factor, he said. Car accidents and influenza pose a greater threat to travelers in Rio than Zika, Cetron said.
"Because of the challenges or real-time surveillance and accuracy of diagnoses, we're still giving our same, cautious message," Cetron said. "Which is, our greatest concern is the infection of a developing child, and the best way to prevent that is to caution pregnant women not to travel, even though we think the risk is diminishing significantly."
Vivek Murthy, the U.S. surgeon general, still called Zika "an ongoing epidemic" and advised travelers to take precautions such as wearing long sleeves, pants and insect repellant and preventing water from pooling in areas as small as a bottle cap.
The Zika virus, which is transmitted through mosquito bites and sexually, causes fever and rash for those who are symptomatic and, most alarming, causes microcephaly in newborns, which results in severe birth defects.
In May, more than 200 doctors, professors, scientists and other health experts signed their names to a letter urging the World Health Organization to apply pressure to either postpone, cancel or move the Olympics because of the threat posed by transmitting Zika over the globe. Cetron cast those concerns as an overreaction, saying less than 0.25 percent of travel to Zika-affected areas could be attributed to people traveling to Rio for the Olympic Games.
Updating the spread of Zika in the United States, Murthy said HHS has tracked more than 6,400 cases, including 1,657 travel-associated instances in the continental United States. There have been 4,729 cases of locally acquired Zika in the U.S. territories, most of them in Puerto Rico, Murthy said.
In South Florida, local officials halted blood donations in Miami-Dade and Broward counties after discovering four Zika infections that may have been spread by mosquitoes. Murthy did not advise a travel ban to Florida for pregnant women.