The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has teamed up with pharmaceutical company Starpharma for free condoms to be issued to its athletes to minimize infection of the mosquito-borne disease.
“The health and well-being of the team come first,” Kitty Chiller, the chef de mission of Australia’s Olympic team, was quoted as saying by AFP.
“Our association with Starpharma will provide extra protection for everyone on the team, and is a commonsense approach to a very serious problem we are facing in Rio,” Chiller added.
Hundreds of thousands of condoms are already shipped to Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic Village but the AOC is taking no chances, opting to provide extra-strong condoms for its athletes.
Starpharma has collaborated with leading condom maker Ansell to supply Zika virus-proof condoms to the Australian Olympic team. The company assured that its condoms have lubricant, called VivaGel, which protects against sexually-transmitted diseases; however, all condoms are capable of protecting against Zika.
“Given sexual transmission of Zika virus is of increasing importance, the potent activity of Starpharma’s VivaGel against Zika could prove very significant,” said Starpharma chief executive officer Jackie Fairley.
Brazil has been one of the South American countries hit hardest by the Zika virus and concerns are mounting about the safety of the athletes participating in the summer Olympics, scheduled to be held from August 5 to 21.
The virus is blamed for birth defects in babies born to infected women, prompting the World Health Organization to advise pregnant women not to travel to Brazil and urge athletes and spectators to always take precautions.
“All females of child-bearing age need to be aware of the specific risks of microcephaly in newborns, should the mother become infected during pregnancy,” said David Hughes, the Australian team’s medical director.
“Following the recently updated guidelines, any team members who are pregnant at the time of the Games need to consider the risks very carefully before deciding whether to proceed with travel to Brazil,” he added.
