The call by 150 health experts to postpone or move the Olympics from Rio de Janeiro because of the Zika epidemic has put Brazil under pressure even as the country is coping with the hit of recession and political turmoil.

The current plans for the Games needed to be revised “in the name of public health”, the health experts, that included a former White House science adviser, wrote to the World health Organization in an open letter.

The spread of Zika virus, which is linked to serious birth defects, would “not significantly be altered” by suspending the Olympics, said the WHO which rejected the idea.

Growing scientific studies that suggest the Zike virus is responsible for birth defects, including microcephaly, were cited in the open letter. Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological disease that results in temporary and sometimes fatal, paralysis is caused by the virus in rare cases.

Rio, which has a high incidence of Zika cases, expects an influx of Olympic visitors and it can lead to a spread of these defects more rapidly around the world, the experts fear.

The Olympic Games has already passed the 100 say countdown to the opening ceremony and the Olympic torch is making its way around Latin America’s largest country. The warning by the health experts come at this juncture.

“The fire is already burning, but that is not a rationale not to do anything about the Olympics. It is not the time now to throw more gasoline on to the fire,” said Amir Attaran, a professor at the University of Ottawa who is one of the letter’s authors.

A call to cancel or relocate the Olympics was given earlier this month by Attaran in a commentary published in the Harvard Public Health Review. Rio de Janeiro has an incident rate of 157 cases for 100,000, the fourth highest in the country and as recorded 26,000 suspected Zika cases – the highest of any state in Brazil, he noted.

“What is proposed is to bring half-a-million Olympic visitors into the heart of the epidemic. But for the Games, would anyone recommend sending an extra half-a-million visitors into Brazil right now?,” he told the Guardian.

Experts from more than two dozen countries who specialise in public health, bioethics and pediatrics joined him in the latest open letter. The Games can go ahead safely as long as athletes and visitors smother themselves in insect repellent to minimise the risks from the mosquito-borne disease, the Brazilian government officials and Olympic organizers have been repeatedly insisted and the appeal by the experts has created fresh headaches for them.

With the biggest military mobilization in Brazil that includes 220,000 army, navy and air force personnel who have been called into action in addition to 315,000 public officials, the government says it has the situation under control.

The World Health Organization has not called for travel restrictions beyond advising pregnant women not to travel to affected areas, such as Rio de Janeiro even after it had issued a global health emergency about Zika in February. The risks should be lower in August, which is winter for Brazil and has a far lower prevalence of mosquito borne diseases, a WHO team lead by director Margaret Chan had said in a press conference in the Olympic city earlier this year.

(Adapted from The Guardian)