Australia will give its Olympic athletes condoms designed to stop spread of Zika virus
An Aedes aegypti mosquito is photographed through a microscope at the Fiocruz institute in Recife, Brazil.
Amid persistent concerns about the Zika outbreak, Australian officials announced Monday they will supply their Olympic athletes with condoms designed to block transmission of the virus.
The mosquito-borne illness -- which can also be spread through sexual contact -- has been prevalent in Brazil where the Summer Games will take place in August.
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The condoms “will provide extra protection for everyone on the team, and is a common sense approach to a very serious problem we are facing in Rio,” said Kitty Chiller, Australia’s chef de mission.
Zika has reached epidemic proportions in Central and Latin America and has been classified as a global health emergency by the World Health Organization.
The virus is relatively mild for most people. But when pregnant women are infected, it appears to be linked to microcephaly, a birth defect that causes babies to be born with smaller-than-normal heads.
Some health officials have predicted the outbreak will subside by August because the mosquito population will decrease during the Southern Hemisphere’s wintertime.
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