A drug-resistant “super bacteria” that is normally found in hospitals and is notoriously difficult to treat has been discovered in the waters where Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic sailing events are to be held, scientists said on Monday.
The Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Brazil’s most respected health research institute, said it has discovered bacteria that produce an enzyme that make it resistant to most forms of treatment in water samples taken from various spots along the Carioca River. Among the spots is where the river flows into the city’s Guanabara Bay, site of the sailing and wind surfing events.
Bacteria with the so-called KPC enzyme are difficult to treat. The institute said no instances of infection resulting from the contaminated water have yet been detected, but warned of possible danger to swimmers.
“The illnesses caused by these microorganisms are the same as those caused by common bacteria, but they require stronger antibiotics and, sometimes, can require hospitalization,” the study’s coordinator, Ana Paula d’Alincourt Carvalho Assef, wrote in an e-mail. “Since the super bacteria are resistant to the most modern medications, doctors need to rely on drugs that are rarely used because they are toxic to the organism.”
Even if they do not immediately fall ill, those who come into contact with the bacteria run the risk of becoming carriers of the microorganism, the institute said in its statement.
“Carriers can take these resistant bacteria back to their own environments and to other people, resulting in a cycle of dissemination,” said the institute, which is affiliated with the Brazilian Health Ministry.
With about 70 percent of the sewage in the city of 12 million going untreated — and flowing, raw, into rivers, onto beaches and into the Guanabara Bay — water quality has been a major worry ahead of the 2016 Games.
In their Olympic bid, organizers pledged to slash by 80 percent the amount of sewage and garbage that is pumped into the bay daily, but critics insist little has been done.
Water quality tests still show sky-high levels of fecal matter throughout much of the bay and authorities have a near-blanket standing recommendation against swimming on any of its beaches. Flamengo beach, where the super bacteria was discovered, is among the Guanabara Bay beaches considered unfit for swimming.
The beach, which is adjacent to Gloria Marina, the starting point for the Olympic sailing events, is also to be the viewing area for the events.
Ben Remocker, a former member of Canada’s Olympic sailing team who represents athletes in two sailing disciplines, called the findings “serious for our athletes.”
“We’re going to be troubled by this,” Remocker said by telephone, adding he did not think the possible health risks would dissuade sailors from taking part in the Games. “I think the sailors are probably going to cross their fingers they aren’t going to get sick.”
The super bacteria were discovered in three out of five samples taken from along the course of the Carioca River. While it is not entirely clear how the bacteria may have gotten into the river, the statement quotes Assef as saying that no bacteria was discovered at the headwaters.
“The first point in which we detect its presence was ... after the river passes through areas with homes and hospitals,” the statement quotes her as saying.
Organizers of the Rio Games declined to comment, saying they would have to look into the findings before responding.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier