2024-02-26 13:24:53
During the Olympic and Paralympic Games, scheduled respectively from July 26 to August 11 and from August 28 to September 8, 2024, 16 million tourists are expected in the streets of the capital. The risk of a significant spread of sexually transmitted infections weighs on the party.
Chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis… Unwanted guests might disrupt the celebration of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which are due to open in five months to the day, on July 26. These sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are spread through unprotected sexual intercourse. Statistically more frequent connections during large gatherings: concerts, festivals or… Olympics.
In 2021, ahead of the Tokyo Games, Japanese health authorities were concerned regarding a strong spread of STIs whose circulation had “not decreased compared to before the start of the pandemic”. “There are risks of importation and spread” of HIV, even if it is “likely that cases will only be detected following” the Olympics, they noted.
Another study carried out following the Sydney Olympics in 2000 highlighted this phenomenon. “The proportion of people with symptoms or known contact with a sexually transmitted infection (STI) was higher during the Games,” an increase of around 29%.
Concerned regarding the risk that these infections might pose to French health systems, Dominique Costagliola, epidemiologist and HIV specialist, launched the alert last January in an Inserm review.
“Many people are expected and we expect contact between these people, including sexual contact,” she explains to BFMTV.com. “These risk increasing the spread of STIs during this period.”
The experts contacted by BFMTV.com primarily discuss the spread of “classic” STIs: chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis and HIV. Infections whose circulation is already on the rise globally and in France.
The “challenge” of measuring 16 million unknowns
This summer, 16 million tourists from all over the world are expected to converge on the capital during the Olympic and then Paralympic Games. Mechanically, due to the number of people present, but also the festive spirit of the event organized in the middle of summer, infections will undoubtedly increase. But estimating this has all the makings of a puzzle.
“Measuring increases in STI cases during major events, such as the Olympic Games, is a real challenge,” the services of the World Health Organization (WHO) explain to BFMTV.com.
Several elements make measurement difficult. The main one: the absence of visible symptoms in many infected people. Another problem, “these symptoms may only appear following the return (of visitors to the Games, Editor’s note) to their country of origin,” adds the WHO.
An increase might therefore take place but remain invisible for some time. This was for example the case in the first weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic, during which the lack of access to tests made tracking the number of cases even more difficult.
For its part, Public Health France does not expect “an increase in the number of STI diagnoses during the period of the Olympic or Paralympic Games”. The organization, however, mentions “diagnoses” and not “infections” – an unknown number which might potentially not be detected when passing through Paris.
A test for health services?
Whether it is a wave, a ripple or a tsunami, the issue calls for prevention and preparation. “On the ground, we will have to prepare for the possibility of an increase in emergency situations for prescriptions for post-exposure treatment once morest HIV, or STI screenings,” warns Dominique Costagliola. “This will impact emergency services.”
Île-de-France health services are already anticipating a summer period that will be more tense than usual. The Regional Health Agency plans to “strengthen without overmobilizing” its workforce. Tensions that will be caused by all illnesses and injuries, not specifically STIs.
But prevention works better than cure. In this sense, “for this period, Public Health France is continuing its efforts to promote sexual health: active work to provide specialized brochures is already underway”. The health agency is planning an awareness campaign ahead of the sequence, from June 3 to 9, during sexual health week.
How will free condoms be implemented?
More than 200,000 condoms for athletes
To avoid ruining the games: come out covered. This is the mantra of the organizers of Paris 2024. If they are not working on the issue of sexual health for the general public, they are concerned regarding that of the delegations invited this summer.
Prevention campaigns aimed at athletes are planned. “We will provide protection devices of several types: male and female condoms, with or without latex as well as oral dams,” plan Laurent Dalard, the director of prevention and Philippe Le Van, the “Chief Medical Officer” of Paris 2024. More than 200,000 condoms will be distributed.
“We feel concerned by this recurring subject. There is an increase in the circulation of STIs in the population – including athletes –,” they lament.
Precautions, yes, but nothing drastic. The Paris Games do not promise to be the hottest. In 2016, in the midst of the proliferation of the Zika virus, the WHO encouraged tourists to only practice safe relationships upon their return home… Even to “abstain from all sexual relations for at least eight weeks.”
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