WHO’s Zika expert panel meets next week, will review Olympic guidance

Leticia de Araujo holds her daughter, one-month-old Manuelly Araujo da Cruz in February after she was born with microcephaly following her mother’s exposure to to the Zika virus. Next week the U.N. health agency will convene a Zika emergency committee to assess the latest on the virus ahead of the Rio Games. (Antonio Lacerda/EPA)

The group of independent experts, who declared an international emergency on Feb. 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.

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“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,” Lindmeier told a news briefing, adding that the date would be announced shortly.

Dr. David Heymann, chair of the Health Protection Agency in Britain and leader of the WHO panel, told Reuters last week that postponing the Rio Olympics due to fears that the event could speed the spread of the virus would create a false sense of security, because travellers are constantly going in and out of Brazil.

“Of course there is a lot of international concern out there, there is a lot of personal concern out there because it’s  a new disease,” he said. “And the best way for us to react to emotional concerns is to look at our deep science and to give clear guidance as good as we can.”

The WHO said last week that people returning from Zika-infected areas should follow safe sex practices or abstain from sex for at least eight weeks rather than just four.