Let the Paris Olympic Games begin, but keep an eye on public health

The multicolored, interlocking rings mounted on the Eiffel Tower signal that the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games will soon be underway. Along with tens of thousands of athletes, officials, staff, media, and contractors from more than 200 nations, organizers expect 15 million tourists in Paris during the Games. Throngs of people from diverse communities coming together for sport and culture is something to cheer. The breeding ground for illness and disease transmission that it can create is not.

When the Olympics begin July 26, followed by the Paralympic Games a month later, attention will be paid to medal counts, doping violations, and competitions. Yet there are significant public health issues that merit serious attention, too. Fortunately, measures still can be taken to mitigate some of them.

France’s Le Monde newspaper recently reported that more than 2,500 cases of dengue have been detected in the country this year. Although often causing no symptoms, the mosquito-borne virus can induce high fever, nausea, severe headaches, and muscle pain. Severe cases can be fatal. Insect repellent will be helpful.

The dengue cases echo Zika concerns at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, and the COVID-19 pandemic that led to the one-year postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Games. People are tired of paying attention to COVID, but danger still lurks: Tight travel conditions and crowded venues could create a COVID superspreader event. Ventilation, masking, and vaccination can still help.

Nor should anyone ignore an upcoming protest of the use of the River Seine for some events, despite swimming being banned for a century because of pollution. Some Parisians intend to express their displeasure by contributing their own bodily waste to the river. Originally timed to precede Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s since-postponed June 23 swim to demonstrate the safety of the water, her dip, and presumably the protest, will take place after the French elections — but still before the Olympics. If the people do “speak,” water monitors could find shigella, yersinia, campylobacter, aeromonas, candida, klebsiella, cryptosporidium, entamoeba histolytica, norovirus, and hepatitis A alongside still unsafe levels of E. coli. Competing for a medal by swimming in filth ought not to be an option.

The most immediate health concern, though, is heat-related illness. July is historically the hottest month in Paris, and with rising global temperatures, heat stroke is a real threat, especially for athletes. Although an environmentally friendly system of pipes will cool rooms in the athletes village, at least six major national delegations — including the U.S. — are supplying air conditioning units to ensure comfort and safety. Of course, these measures don’t apply to outdoor training and competition. Shifting events to cooler times of day, increasing vehicular transportation, and adding more air conditioning should be in store if temperatures climb.

Olympic and French health officials should promote prevention, including vaccines for those who can take them. Another measure — no matter how impressive images of events on the River Seine could be — is moving competitions to clean bodies of water. Also, organizers need to ensure that an abundance of health care workers trained in heat-related illnesses are standing by and that shade and water are widely available.

The Paris Olympics will go on. Amid the excitement, attendees should think through where and how they will move about. Personal and public health must be prioritized. Let the Games begin.

This guest essay reflects the views of Arthur Caplan and Lisa Kearns, head and senior research associate, respectively, of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and Lee Igel, professor at the NYU Tisch Institute for Global Sport.