--- title: 'Super Bacteria' Found At Site of 2016 Rio Olympics Events description: Newly discovered bacteria is resistant to much modern medicine canonical: https://time.com/3635937/super-bacteria-water-olympics-rio-2016/ author: Victor Luckerson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-16T17:38:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:54:10.173Z article:section: Health og:title: 'Super Bacteria' Found At Site of 2016 Rio Olympics Events og:description: Newly discovered bacteria is resistant to much modern medicine og:url: https://time.com/3635937/super-bacteria-water-olympics-rio-2016/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt114390f9f16ac720/69876f1fe20a878a1aa840e0/guanabara-bay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: OLY-2016-RIO-SAILING-REGATTA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Super Bacteria' Found At Site of 2016 Rio Olympics Events twitter:description: Newly discovered bacteria is resistant to much modern medicine twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt114390f9f16ac720/69876f1fe20a878a1aa840e0/guanabara-bay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # There’s a ‘Super Bacteria’ in Waters Where the 2016 Olympics Will Be Held > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Victor Luckerson](https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Dec 16, 2014 5:38 PM UTC  Athletes compete in the Men's Laser during the final day of Aquece Rio, the International Sailing Regatta 2014, the first test event for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games at Guanabara bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 9, 2014. Athletes compete in the Men's Laser during the final day of Aquece Rio, the International Sailing Regatta 2014, the first test event for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games at Guanabara bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 9, 2014. Yasuyoshi Chiba—AFP/Getty Images by [Victor Luckerson](https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Dec 16, 2014 5:38 PM UTC Scientists have discovered a hard-to-treat ‘super bacteria’ in the body of water where Olympic events are planned in 2016 in Brazil. The bacteria, which contains a special enzyme that makes it highly resistant to medical treatment, was found in Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay, which will be the site of competitions in sailing and wind surfing, the Associated Press [reports](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/afd63e2d3b0b4dbe9ab9f41b5abac222/super-bacteria-found-rios-olympic-waters). The Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, a Brazilian health institute, said it had not yet detected any infections from the contaminated water but that an infected person would need very strong antibiotics and possible hospitalization to fight off the bacteria. Infected people can spread the bacteria even if they don’t become sick, the institute said. In Rio 70% of sewage goes untreated and flows into rivers, bays and beaches. Olympic planners have said they will reduce the amount of sewage flowing into Guanabara Bay by 80% in time for the Games. \[[_AP_](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/afd63e2d3b0b4dbe9ab9f41b5abac222/super-bacteria-found-rios-olympic-waters)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3635937/super-bacteria-water-olympics-rio-2016/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3635937/super-bacteria-water-olympics-rio-2016/"},"headline":"There’s a ‘Super Bacteria’ in Waters Where the 2016 Olympics Will Be Held","datePublished":"2014-12-16T17:38:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:54:10.173Z","description":"Newly discovered bacteria is resistant to much modern medicine","url":"https://time.com/3635937/super-bacteria-water-olympics-rio-2016/","keywords":["Disease","olympics","health","Bacteria","Rio"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt114390f9f16ac720/69876f1fe20a878a1aa840e0/guanabara-bay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Victor Luckerson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt114390f9f16ac720/69876f1fe20a878a1aa840e0/guanabara-bay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"OLY-2016-RIO-SAILING-REGATTA","caption":"OLY-2016-RIO-SAILING-REGATTA","creditText":"Yasuyoshi Chiba—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/disease/","name":"Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3635937/super-bacteria-water-olympics-rio-2016/","name":"There’s a ‘Super Bacteria’ in Waters Where the 2016 Olympics Will Be Held"}}]}] ```