WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� While millions of soccer fans cheer or groan over spanning North America, health officials will be on high alert for germs.
A may be the most obvious health threat. But infectious diseases can spread in a crowd, and experts are set to scrutinize wastewater, hospital visits, even social media for any signs that an outbreak might be brewing.
Measles, one of the , is among the top concerns, sparking a warning this week from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO. With a nearly six-week stretch of packed stadiums, bars and tourist sites in 16 cities, officials are on the lookout for a long list of infections, from the stomach bug norovirus to .
鈥淭his is truly a marathon,鈥� said Palak Raval-Nelson, Philadelphia’s health commissioner.
The mass gatherings come at a tense moment for budget-strapped health agencies in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hit hard by Trump administration staffing cuts, already was grappling with a in central Africa and a outbreak. While CDC officials have advised state and local health departments behind the scenes, its expected World Cup disease surveillance dashboard still was 鈥渋n final development鈥� days before games began, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
鈥淥ur public health professionals are pretty stretched,鈥� said global health specialist Rebecca Katz of Georgetown University, who is leading an unusual new hub to help.
At the Health Security Operations Center, a joint effort between Georgetown and MedStar Health, workers are analyzing data from around the country so they can alert health authorities, even emergency rooms, to any early signs of trouble. The center is issuing daily 鈥渟ituation reports鈥� about disease trends around World Cup host cities and team base camps to several hundred local and federal public health groups, emergency management and hospital officials and others who鈥檝e signed up.
鈥淚t’s important that we don’t become alarmist,鈥� said MedStar emergency medicine specialist Dr. Shane Kappler. 鈥淲e’re trying to be the insurance policy.鈥�
Measles is a top concern for potential World Cup spread
Already more than 2,000 people in the U.S. have come down with measles this year, nearly as many as during all of last year, according to the CDC. Patients can spread measles before the rash appears and they realize they’re sick. Not too long ago, the U.S. seldom saw measles except from international travel by unvaccinated people.
Now with frequent U.S. outbreaks, “actually a lot of our international partners are worried about measles being exported to them after the games,鈥� said Georgetown鈥檚 Katz.
Measles is spreading in Canada, too, and has exceeded 11,000 cases in Mexico, according to PAHO. It鈥檚 urging soccer fans to be sure they鈥檙e vaccinated, with a health campaign saying a single measles patient can spread the virus to up to 18 unprotected people.
Is Ebola a concern at the World Cup?
Brown University鈥檚 Dr. Craig Spencer, who survived Ebola while working in the West Africa outbreak over a decade ago, said he鈥檚 repeatedly asked about the risk of Ebola during the World Cup 鈥� but 鈥渇or me, Ebola is not the No. 1 or No. 2 or even No. 3 threat.鈥�
鈥淚 am concerned about importation of measles, I am much more concerned about the importation of other infectious threats that may not seem as scary to us as Ebola,鈥� Spencer said.
Many health experts agree that the risk of Ebola spreading in the U.S. is very low. That鈥檚 partly because of government travel screenings and restrictions on people recently in outbreak-affected areas. Moreover, Ebola spreads by contact with bodily fluids from someone showing symptoms, not through the air like measles or respiratory viruses.
鈥淥ne fortunate thing about this virus is you鈥檙e most contagious when you鈥檙e really quite ill. It鈥檚 not like COVID, where you could be sitting next to someone who doesn鈥檛 even know they鈥檙e infected and perhaps contract the virus,鈥� said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown鈥檚 Pandemic Center.
How to spot brewing diseases
There鈥檚 precedent for germs invading major sporting events. Canadian scientists linked a community measles outbreak to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, and clusters of norovirus had to be contained during the and in 2018 in South Korea.
One way to detect signs of trouble: People with certain viral or bacterial infections shed genetic material that sophisticated testing of wastewater can spot. For example, measles can appear in wastewater days before an emergency room sees its first patients.
This week’s surveillance reports from Katz’s center note that wastewater testing recently found diarrhea-causing rotavirus, hepatitis A and norovirus in some parts of the U.S., something to watch as soccer crowds arrive.
In Dallas, officials ramped up wastewater screening including at the international airport, casting a wide net rather than looking for specific illnesses, said Dr. Phil Huang, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services.
His team also is enhancing the usual mosquito testing, checking not just for West Nile virus that regularly spreads in the U.S. but for viruses more common in other countries like dengue and chikungunya.
Public health officials have been preparing for months, said Philadelphia鈥檚 Raval-Nelson, including with mock emergency drills and communications with counterparts around the country.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to send a message that there鈥檚 one key thing,” she said. 鈥淲e have the frameworks in place to carry out what we need to.鈥�
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