Rio Olympics Health News: Has Brazil Already Defeated Zika?

Zika was seemingly overrated even two months before the Rio Olympics. It showed a week ago that over 17,000 athletes, volunteers and staff were zika-free during the test events in the run-up to the games.

Among the 500,000 visitors expected for the Olympics, the committee's chief medical officer suggested that the cooler temperatures has caused to a decrease in the number of Zika infections even in recent months. LA Times even reported that "Brazil defeated the mosquito that spreads Zika once before". Medical officer João Grangeiro said that Rio de Janeiro should be a place that is safe enough for over a million athletes, staffs, and expectators.

In spite of the good news being brought during the Olympics, there were many athletes who did not take the risk of coming and joining the competition. Some who did not go were golfer Rory McIlroy and basketball player Stephen Curry.

Other parts of Brazil remain in the phase of the Zika epidemic though. In fact, they are discovering new long-term complications caused by the virus recently. A hospital in Recife, Brazil identified about 20 suspected microcephaly cases in a day. Raising babies with congenital Zika syndrome is very costly and so causing extremely huge stress within families and the government.

There is no vaccine available for Zika yet although there are experiments being done in progress today. Some monkeys were already given zika vaccines and had successful results. Even the recent human experiment for the zika vaccine was successful. Everyone however is still waiting for the final approval to use the vaccine and see how well it will work.

Many were too brave to outdo Zika while some choose not to compromise.