Japan hopefully has time to build
virus defenses before Olympics: professor
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[January 30, 2020]
By Rocky Swift
TOKYO (Reuters) - Vaccines against a
coronavirus that has killed 170 people in China probably won't be
ready by the start of the Tokyo Summer Olympics, a professor who
looked at health risks ahead of the Games said, adding that he hoped
that there was enough time to build defenses.
Koji Wada, professor of public health at the International
University of Health and Welfare in Tokyo, co-authored a paper in
2018 that looked at health risks from the influx of visitors to the
2020 Games in July.
The spread of measles, rubella and other vaccine-preventable
diseases was seen at the time as the most likely risk, according to
the report, along with food and waterborne illnesses.
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Wada said he hoped there was enough time to learn more about the
coronavirus and how it spreads.
"We may have more information about the risk of infection and the
risk of severity of getting the virus, so we can prepare," Wada told
Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. "So we can have some
precautions for infection control... but I hope we can conduct the
Tokyo Olympics as scheduled."
Two of three Japanese people evacuated from China and found to be
infected with the new virus had not shown symptoms, Japan's health
ministry said on Thursday, adding to worry about the dangers of the
fast-spreading virus.
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![](../images/013020pics/sports59.jpg)
Fireworks light up the sky near the illuminated Olympic rings at a
ceremony to mark six months before the start of the 2020 Olympic
Games in Tokyo, Japan in this photo taken by Kyodo January 24, 2020.
Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS
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Fears of disease outbreaks have clouded recent Olympics. The
mosquito-borne Zika virus threatened the start of the 2016 Olympics
in Rio de Janeiro, while the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver were
overshadowed by the H1N1 swine flu pandemic. Dozens fell ill in an
outbreak of norovirus ahead of South Korea's Pyeongchang Winter
Games two years ago.
(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by David Dolan and Nick Macfie)
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