No evidence of Olympic Zika spread, WHO committee says

[GENEVA] There is no evidence of a significant spread of the Zika virus due to the Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, boding well for a "low risk assessment" at the Paralympics this month, the World Health Organization's outbreaks and emergencies head said on Friday.

"Certainly we feel fairly confident that the risk assessment that there would be no significant increased transmission due to the Olympics is very much on track," Peter Salama said after a meeting of the WHO's emergency committee on Zika.

Nobody returning from the games has reported Zika symptoms, although most cases are asymptomatic, he said.

The latest country to suffer an outbreak of the virus, Singapore, has had textbook response to the outbreak, he said. The committee's chairman David Heymann said Singapore was expected to sequence the virus strain in its outbreak next week.

REUTERS

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