WHO: Viral testing ‘advisable’ in Rio’s Olympic waters

Rio de Janeiro—The World Health Organization’s (WHO) top water expert said last Friday (last Saturday in Manila) the body “never advised against viral testing” for Rio de Janeiro’s polluted waterways, where about 1,400 athletes will compete in Olympic events next year. 

Bruce Gordon, the WHO’s coordinator of water, sanitation, hygiene and health, told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Geneva, Switzerland, that testing for viruses “would be advisable,” given it’s known that human sewage pollution is rife in Rio’s waters.

“WHO would support additional viral testing to further inform the risk assessment by authorities and to verify and address concerns raised by independent testing,” Gordon said, indicating it was WHO’s official stance. “In this case, measuring coliphages and enteric viruses would be advisable.”

The comments come after Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi said earlier last week at a press conference in Rio that the International Olympic Committee ruled out viral testing because the WHO made it “very clear that bacterial testing is what should be followed.”

The issue of more robust testing for Rio’s waterways is in the spotlight following an independent, five-month AP analysis published on July 30 of samples from each of the venues where athletes will have contact with water.

The results showed dangerously high levels of disease-causing viruses from human sewage at all water venues for next year’s games, with an expert’s risk assessment saying it was an almost certainty athletes would be infected by viruses, regardless of their sport, be it rowing, swimming or sailing. That doesn’t automatically mean an athlete would fall ill—that depends on numerous factors, including their immune system. AP