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Stephen Mpofu
Sustained bursts of joy and fun as the Rio Olympics reach a scintillating peak and then Zika going on the rampage across sections of the globe, leaving behind in its wake babies with small heads or others with neurological disorders.

Chances of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in August acting as an agent for the spread of the Zika virus maybe on the probability scale — and connoisseurs of self-induced but false immunity and therefore also of self consolation will stop at nothing in attacking this pen for spoiling their fun by being an alarmist, or for even de-campaigning Rio and remotely suggesting the relocation of the summer Olympics.

But far from it.

This discourse on the forthcoming games is genuinely meant to rouse authorities overseeing preparations by their athletes for the Olympics not to go to sleep under a false belief that the Zika carrying mosquitoes will demonstrate a rare hospitality by sparing the visitors.

In fact, this pen humbly seeks to get absolutely certain that the Rio-bound athletes receive the necessary pre-games protection against the Zika menace.

Here at home, the Mighty Warriors who will carry the Zimbabwean flag in Rio may rest with relief — but only just — after the Ministry of Health and Child Care gave the Ministry of Sports and Recreation “the advisory to proceed” to the games, according to Minister Makhosini Hlongwane on thursday.

All the same, the question of health precautions for Zimbabwe’s participants in the games had to be re-visited in order to ensure the safety of our athletes and officials accompanying them.

A legal expert was quoted on a radio station on Monday as saying that as many as 7,000 people were known to be infected with Zika in Rio de Janeiro, with the radio also saying that Cape Verde, off mainland Africa had also been infected by the mosquito virus.

A doctor at a private medical facility in Bulawayo said this week “there is a risk” of athletes at the Olympics contracting the Zika virus. “But when people want something you can’t stop,” said the doctor who cannot be named for professional reasons.

A report on the same radio channel also indicated that a bite by an African mosquito causes complications in a person with Zika.

Reports by medical experts suggest that unprotected sex exposes people to contraction of Zika.

But you should not rejoice in haste because a direct bite by a mosquito poses the same risk of contracting Zika — and the Zika virus borne mosquitoes are not known to have been wiped off every nook in Rio, or to face that prospect before the games begin.

Even if it were possible to kill every single mosquito before the start of the Olympics, there would still be reticence in doing so as Brazilians are right now preoccupied with the impeachment of their president now under suspension for allegedly acting in a manner that put that country in an invidious  position.

Rio de Janeiro is also home to a large population of black people — but blacks with a skin much, much darker than that which Africans wear, this pen discovered during a visit to Rio years back.

As such, athletes from Africa should avoid getting carried away with their alienated cousins and others because — who knows — that hospitable host might also be a Zika host.

Apart from our women’s soccer team, Southern Africa will also be represented by South Africa’s Banyana Banyana as well as an under 23 soccer team.

Some people have suggested that the World Health Organisation has deliberately refrained from strongly warning athletes to the Olympics of the risk that Zika poses to them, because these people believe the WHO does not want to make remarks that might be misconstrued as causing unnecessary alarm ahead of the Olympics.