Mayo Clinic expert offers tips to avoid illness at major events

Zika isn't the only health concern now that the games have begun in Rio. Massive crowds from around the globe will be at the Olympics, and that means a world-class array of germs will mix with them. Mayo Clinic infectious diseases expert Gregory Poland, M.D., offers several tips for avoiding illness when you are around lots of people, whether at the Olympics, a professional sports event, convention, concert or other major event.

"The big ones that we're worried about in terms of the Olympics are things that are currently epidemic in certain parts of the world, including the U.S. Those would include pertussis, measles, mumps, and rubella says the director of the Vaccine Research Group at Mayo Clinic. Flu may also still be a possibility."

Dr. Poland can also offer insight into Zika, the risk of contracting it, the mosquitos that carry it and what's being done to find a vaccine.