Zika virus at the Olympic games: is it safe?

In a notorious scene in the film Marathon Man, a runner (played by Dustin Hoffman) is repeatedly asked by the Nazi dentist character (played by the late Laurence Olivier), “Is it safe?” With the Olympic Games due to start on Aug 5 and Paralympic Games on Sept 7, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a country experiencing an outbreak of Zika virus infection, athletes from a plethora of sports, officials, and spectators will be asking themselves the same question. Already the South Korean Olympic team has announced that its athletes’ uniforms will be coated with mosquito repellent.

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