The United States Olympic Committee (USOC, for its acronym in English) denied on Monday with a small statement that is encouraging their athletes not to participate in the Games Rio 2016 by Zika virus.
"The reports that the United States Olympic Committee has advised its athletes to reconsider their participation in the Games of Rio due to the Zika virus are 100% inaccurate," USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky.
"The US team is already looking towards the Games and have not even let us keep our athletes compete for their country if they qualify," he added.
The statement denies that "the US Olympic Committee told the sports federations of the country that athletes and staff concerned about their health by Zika virus should consider not going to the Olympic Games in Rio 2016", from 5 to 21 of August.
According to news sources, the message was delivered in a conference call in which they were involved USOC officials and leaders of sports federations in the United States in late January.
The USOC has not issued its own set of recommendations for athletes and staff beyond that issued the World Health Organization, which declared a global health emergency response to the rapid spread of the virus, and many affected countries took the initiative asking women to avoid at all costs a pregnancy at this juncture.
Sports Minister of Brazil, George Hilton, said Monday the newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo that his government is making "necessary clarifications" with sports federations to explain that there are no risks for athletes because the games take place in winter when the mosquito reduces circulation.
"The Zika is a public health problem worldwide, but precisely because of the climate characteristics, is not an Olympic issue," Hilton said.
According to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), at least 26 countries on the continent have already been affected by Zika.
The Zika spreads extremely fast in South America and Central America, but also in Puerto Rico. US officials fear above all that, when spring and summer, the Aedes aegypti reach the southern states.
United States was the country that won more medals at the last Games in London-2012.