In response to concerns about the Zika Virus, which has caused speculations about health risks at the Rio Olympic Games, the National Institute of Health will fund a study to monitor potential infections among members of the U.S. Olympic Team. The purpose of the study is to get a better understanding of how the virus remains in the body, as well as the factors that influence the course of infection.
“Zika virus infection poses many unknown risks, especially to those of reproductive age,” said Catherine Spong, director of NICHD. “Monitoring the health and reproductive outcomes of members of the U.S. Olympic team offers a unique opportunity to answer important questions and help address an ongoing public health emergency.”
There are no current treatments for the Zika virus, which may cause some athletes to worry about their health at the Games. Those who are infected may experience fevers, muscle and joint pain, rashes, headaches, and conjunctivitis. It may also be concerning to family members who will travel to Rio as spectators, particularly pregnant women. The Zika virus may cause microcephaly in newborns, leading to birth defects and brain damage.
For non-pregnant people who are affected by the virus, symptoms of Zika are usually less severe than the flu, and rarely result in hospitalization.
Participants in the study will include athletes, coaches, and USOC staff during the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics. They’ll be completing health surveys, as well as providing bodily fluid samples for Zika detection. By funding this study, the NIH aims to identify the risk factors for becoming infected, how the virus stays in the body, how long the infection persists, and reproductive outcomes of participants who are infected with the virus. By giving us a better understanding how the virus works, the study could potentially give us a better idea of how to combat Zika in regions affected by the virus, and stop it from spreading in the future.
So now these high performance athlete are guinea pigs for the government and science Wow. I’m appalled. So we should go to Rio for a scientific experiment rather than move the games to assure the health and safety of athletes. Everyone f these athletes is entitled to informed consent. And just being an athlete with privilege of representing your country should not carry the stipulation that your subject to a science experiment.!
To be fair, Olympic athletes are the best conditioned people in the world and since they’re so healthy they have a very low chance of Zika doing much harm to them (assuming they aren’t pregnant). And they have to do human research one way or another. It’s one group of people or another.
Being conditioned and having a top notch immune system are two completely different things. The heavy training that athletes undergo takes it’s toll, making them at least as vulnerable as the average person as far as catching colds, flu, etc. They can get zika just like anybody else. The fact that it is possibly sexually transmitted is particularly scary. I don’t see them as guinea pigs however, just because the NIH wants to follow them.