RIO 2016: ZIKA VIRUS NOW A SERIOUS THREAT - WHO

•World Health Organization said it will reassess Zika threat after pressure

•There are less than two months to go until the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro

•Organisation now set to rethink whether to hold games in Rio as planned

•More than 200 academics around the world called to postpone the games

In a dramatic eleventh hour U-turn, the World Health Organization (WHO) has finally bowed to international pressure and said it will reconsider the threat of the Zika virus.

With the Olympics fast approaching, the director-general of the organisation, Dr Margaret Chan, said the WHO will now 'examine the risks of holding the Olympic Summer Games as currently scheduled'.

The comes after more than 200 academics from around the world signed an open letter to Dr Chan, calling on the Olympics and Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro to be postponed or moved.

Professor Amir Attaran, a law and medicine professor at the University of Ottawa, was among those academics leading the campaign.

He labelled the WHO 'arrogant and ignorant' for its failure to assess the risks posed by the ongoing pandemic.

He also accused the organisation of 'rejecting the wisdom of an open, transparent, independent scientific evaluation' after it had decided to follow the advice of the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which had said there was no reason to delay or move the games.