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WHO: Zika Concerns Not Severe Enough To Postpone Or Cancel Olympics

Published June 15, 2016 at 1:45 PM EDT
Workers stand at an entrance to the Olympic Park construction site on June 8, 2015 in the Barra da Tijuca neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Workers stand at an entrance to the Olympic Park construction site on June 8, 2015 in the Barra da Tijuca neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The World Health Organization said this week that there’s no reason to postpone or cancel the upcoming Rio Olympics over the Zika virus. The risk of Zika spreading around the globe as a result of the Olympics is “very, very low,” WHO officials said.

They also reiterated their recommendation that only pregnant women should skip the August games. Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson gets an update on Zika from Helen Branswell, who covers infectious diseases and public health for the health and medicine publication STAT.

Guest

Helen Branswell, reporter covering infectious diseases and public health for STAT. She tweets @HelenBranswell.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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