Friday, Mar 29, 2024 | Last Update : 02:31 AM IST

  WHO panel on Zika virus to meet next week

WHO panel on Zika virus to meet next week

REUTERS
Published : Jun 8, 2016, 7:14 am IST
Updated : Jun 8, 2016, 7:14 am IST

The World Health Organisation’s emergency committee on Zika will meet early next week to consider new evidence and review its recommendations, including regarding the Rio Olympics, a WHO spokesman sai

The World Health Organisation’s emergency committee on Zika will meet early next week to consider new evidence and review its recommendations, including regarding the Rio Olympics, a WHO spokesman said on Tuesday.

The group of independent experts, who declared an international emergency on Februray 1 and last convened on March 8, will “look at evidence around the Olympics and most likely review the travel guidance around that,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said.

The WHO has rejected a call by more than 100 scientists for the Rio Games, to be moved or postponed due to the threat from the Zika outbreak. The mosquito-borne virus is linked to microcephaly, a rare birth defect characterised by an unusually small head size and potentially severe developmental problems.

“The role of emergency committee is to review all new science and all new evidence which has come in over the past months and to review their own recommendations, to make new recommendations or give out new guidance,” Mr Lindmeier told a press briefing. The experts’ teleconference will be held on June 14, the WHO said in a statement that did not mention the Rio Games starting on August 5.

New research attempting to calculate the risk of the Zika virus at the Brazil-hosted Olympics may reassure organisers, athletes and fans expected to travel to the country at the epicenter of the epidemic.