The Australian Olympic Committee will be supplying its athletes competing in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro with condoms to help prevent any contraction of the Zika virus.
The mosquito-spread virus has been rife in Central and South America over the last months and people are warned that the areas are high risk if visited. The World Health Organization have issued these areas as experiencing an epidemic – a problem that Olympic athletes will have to face when competing in the Brazilian city this year.
An Australian pharmaceutical company named Starpharma will be providing special condoms created in laboratory studies that have an ultimate protection against the Zika virus. According to The Huffington Post, the contraceptives are lubricated with Starpharma’s own VivaGel product that provides an antiviral protection.
Athletes will also be asked to take part in blood tests upon their return to screen for any possible signs that they have picked up the virus.
Australian team chef de mission Kitty Chiller is keen to protect the health of their athletes and also believes that every precaution is necessary to stop any potential spread of the virus.
“The health and wellbeing of the team comes first and our association with Starpharma will provide extra protection for everyone on the team,” she said, “It is a common sense approach to a very serious problem we are facing in Rio.”
The Zika virus has been spreading out of the Latin American continent with cases showing up in the U.S. and Europe with sexual transmission contributing to this.
Other countries will also be providing their athletes with the Centers for Disease Control contributing to talks for U.S. participants. They will be advising pregnant partners to refrain from travelling to Brazil and ask that partners returning from the Olympics to use extra protection or abstain from sex altogether.
The games in Rio de Janeiro are due to start August 5 and will continue until August 21.