As athletes and hundreds of thousands of followers gear up for the FIFA World Cup beginning subsequent week, world well being officers are getting ready for a high-stakes problem of their very own: defending in opposition to infectious ailments.
For the primary time, the event will span 16 host cities throughout three international locations — america, Canada and Mexico — and have 48 groups, making it the most important World Cup in historical past. The occasion additionally comes amid an Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda that the World Well being Group has designated a “public well being emergency of worldwide concern.”
Regardless of these worries, the chance of widespread Ebola transmission throughout the event is low, infectious illness consultants instructed CNBC. Public well being departments, hospitals and different companions are additionally nicely geared up to reply to a spread of potential threats — even after sweeping cuts to essential federal companies and the U.S. exiting from the WHO below the Trump administration.
“Ebola and hantavirus, I fear about loads much less,” Dr. Shruti Gohil, the affiliate medical director for College of California, Irvine Well being Epidemiology and An infection Prevention, mentioned in an interview. “The general chance of danger isn’t nonzero, nevertheless it’s low, very low, as a result of it’s not straightforward to transmit individual to individual.”
Signage for the FIFA World Cup at The Outlets at Columbus Circle in New York, Could 21, 2026.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
As a substitute, consultants say extra contagious threats may pose higher challenges throughout the event and different giant occasions this summer season, significantly as a result of worldwide guests may transfer by way of a number of venues and cities in a matter of days.
These threats embrace measles — one of many world’s most contagious ailments — in addition to respiratory viruses akin to Covid-19 and influenza. The priority comes after the U.S. recorded its highest variety of measles circumstances in many years final yr, pushed partly by rising vaccine hesitancy and declining immunization charges.
Some consultants additionally pointed to arboviruses unfold by contaminated bugs, akin to dengue, whereas others highlighted heat-related and foodborne sicknesses as notable dangers past infectious ailments.
Making ready for the World Cup has concerned scaling up present packages, akin to wastewater monitoring, and including new instruments to trace infectious illness threats. These techniques will face their first main check when the event kicks off on June 11, however public well being officers say they’re able to tackle the problem.
“Public well being prides itself in being the invisible protect, however I do not need that to get misplaced within the precise Herculean effort it takes to have an operational invisible protect, so that individuals can take pleasure in occasions just like the World Cup and really feel protected and safe of their public well being after they’re right here,” mentioned Dr. Theresa Tran, director for the Houston Well being Division.
“That is a system that I am terribly proud about … we’re completely working so arduous each single day in preparation for issues like this,” mentioned Tran, who’s overseeing the response in a bunch metropolis.
Ebola danger is low regardless of present outbreak
Docs With out Borders well being employees carrying private protecting gear transfer by way of the remoted pink zone to watch sufferers, present medical care and guarantee sanitation on the Ebola Therapy Heart in Munigi in Congo on June 2, 2026.
Jospin Mwisha | AFP | Getty Pictures
Ebola doesn’t unfold as simply as Covid and different respiratory ailments, making it much less of a menace throughout the World Cup regardless of the rising outbreak, consultants mentioned.
World well being authorities have confirmed greater than 260 circumstances and are investigating 1,100 extra doable infections in Congo and Uganda, in line with the WHO. The present pressure of Ebola, the Bundibugyo virus, is an typically deadly type of the illness with no permitted remedy or vaccine.
However there have been no circumstances of Ebola within the U.S. as of Wednesday. Virus transmission requires direct, shut contact with the bodily fluids or blood of somebody who’s already exhibiting signs, mentioned Dr. Amesh Adalja, adjunct assistant professor on the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg College of Public Well being, in an interview. Sufferers with Ebola are “going to be very sick” and can probably keep at residence or within the hospital moderately than attend giant occasions with different individuals, he added.
“It is not a respiratory virus; it isn’t one thing that thrives in crowds that do not have publicity to blood and physique fluids, so I do not assume that it poses an goal menace to the World Cup,” Adalja mentioned.
Nonetheless, federal and native public well being officers are gearing up to reply to Ebola dangers.
The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention has carried out enhanced entry measures for vacationers from international locations linked to the outbreak. Anybody arriving within the U.S. after spending time in Congo, Uganda or South Sudan inside the earlier 21 days is required to enter by way of designated airports in Atlanta, Houston, New York or the Washington space, the place they may endure public well being screening.
Throughout these screenings, CDC employees will survey people about their journey historical past and signs, test their temperatures and accumulate contact data for follow-ups by state and native public authorities if wanted, the company’s web site says. People are additionally monitored for Ebola’s full incubation interval of 21 days, not solely the day they arrive within the U.S., UCI’s Gohil mentioned.
The screening protocol extends past the airport. Native well being departments are notified when vacationers from affected areas arrive of their jurisdictions, enabling officers to watch them for indicators of sickness, mentioned Dr. Marvia Jones, director of the well being division for Kansas Metropolis, a bunch metropolis.
In Dallas County, Texas, the place World Cup video games can even be performed, the well being division has coordinated with emergency responders and native hospitals to make sure any traveler who develops Ebola signs could be safely transported and handled, county well being Director Dr. Phil Huang instructed CNBC. The plans embrace figuring out which services would obtain sufferers, getting ready these locations for infection-control protocols and arranging specialised transportation if wanted.
Huang mentioned the county additionally held a session to teach native healthcare suppliers on the teachings discovered from Dallas’ 2014 Ebola case, together with the significance of acquiring journey histories, recognizing signs and following established procedures for affected person transport, isolation, contact tracing and using private protecting gear.
Ebola “is unquestionably prime of thoughts as a heavy factor with our historical past,” Huang mentioned.
In an announcement to CNBC, FIFA mentioned it’s conscious and monitoring the Ebola outbreak and continues to work with all three host international locations’ governments to “guarantee a protected and safe event.” FIFA can also be informing ticket holders residing in Congo, South Sudan and Uganda of journey concerns forward of the occasion.
Measles, respiratory ailments increase concern
Measles is “our largest concern” when it comes to infectious ailments on the World Cup because it is likely one of the most contagious viruses, mentioned James Garrow, communications director for Philadelphia’s Division of Public Well being.
“We’re seeing outbreaks all through the U.S. and abroad, and when you may have a illness that is as infectious as this, individuals simply need to be in the identical airplane for an hour or two and unexpectedly you may have an outbreak that is transferred to some place else,” Garrow instructed CNBC.
Philadelphia well being officers have targeted on guaranteeing healthcare suppliers can rapidly establish measles circumstances, share data and coordinate response efforts as the town prepares to host matches, he mentioned. However worldwide guests pose a specific problem as a result of they typically journey to quite a few places in a brief time frame, rising the variety of potential exposures to the virus in comparison with a neighborhood.
FIFA World Cup signage is seen on the PATH practice station on the World Commerce Heart transportation hub in New York on Could 27, 2026.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Pictures
The U.S. had extra measles circumstances in 2025 than in some other yr since 1991, with greater than 2,100 confirmed circumstances. Instances had been reported in 45 jurisdictions in 2025, and there have been 48 outbreaks, in contrast with 16 the earlier yr, in line with the CDC.
The U.S. eradicated measles in 2000, however circumstances have risen as misinformation spreads and vaccination charges decline. About 93% of confirmed measles circumstances final yr had been amongst individuals who had been unvaccinated or whose vaccination standing was unknown, CDC knowledge reveals.
In addition to measles, Houston’s Tran mentioned she’s involved about different ailments vulnerable to larger unfold as vaccination charges drop within the U.S., akin to Covid and the flu.
“The transmissibility being airborne makes them so more likely to trigger a public well being menace than Ebola,” she mentioned.
However Houston, Tran mentioned, has skilled epidemiologists who’re monitoring and contract-tracing people anytime there’s a vaccine-preventable illness that might grow to be an outbreak.
Norovirus, food-borne and heat-related sicknesses in addition to sexually transmitted infectious may additionally pose challenges throughout the event, some public well being officers instructed CNBC.
However public well being departments have been working to make sure that meals distributors on the World Cup and associated gatherings have the right permits to promote to the general public, mentioned Dr. Monika Roy, the deputy well being officer and infectious illness and response department director for the County of Santa Clara, California. The county outdoors of San Francisco can even host matches.
Along with keeping track of allowing, Houston has groups of registered sanitarians prepared to research any foodborne sicknesses, and it has ready public well being campaigns associated to heat-related sickness and prevention given the excessive humidity within the metropolis.
Increasing surveillance efforts
This yr’s World Cup brings “added layers of challenges,” and never solely due to the dimensions of the occasion, mentioned Dr. Rebecca Katz, who leads Georgetown College’s Heart for World Well being Science and Safety. She mentioned the event comes after useful resource cuts to public well being and the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO earlier this yr, which has “strained” worldwide mechanisms for illness sharing.
Trump minimize roughly 10% of the CDC’s workforce in early 2025, leaving fewer epidemiologists and scientific employees to do boots-on-the-ground work or coordinate responses throughout governments. There may be at the moment no everlasting CDC director or U.S. surgeon common, each positions that play a essential function in responding to illness threats.
Regardless of the cuts, the CDC mentioned it’s “actively engaged in World Cup preparedness as a part of the federal coordination construction led by the White Home FIFA World Cup 2026 Activity Pressure” and is partaking with public well being departments in host cities, different federal companies and accomplice organizations. The CDC has additionally developed a World Cup knowledge dashboard, which is in last improvement, to provide state and native well being departments higher visibility into illness tendencies throughout jurisdictions, an company spokesperson mentioned in an announcement.
Nonetheless, “there have been cuts to public well being in any respect ranges and the parents who’re in these jobs are working actually, actually arduous, typically with a smaller funds and fewer personnel, so there’s a chance for the remainder of the group to assist assist that” and “attempt to leap in and fill a few of these data gaps,” Katz mentioned.
That is one motive why Katz in Could launched the Well being Safety Operations Heart, a hub for monitoring potential infectious illness threats that can distribute each day state of affairs stories beginning Thursday to lots of of state and native well being officers, federal companies, event organizers and hospital emergency managers, amongst others. It is a part of the Nationwide Heart for Well being Safety and Resilience, a joint effort between Georgetown College and MedStar Well being.
Among the many middle’s efforts is taking part in each day stand-up calls hosted by the Pan American Well being Group, a regional workplace of the WHO, and sharing that data immediately with native, state and federal jurisdictions, Katz mentioned. PAHO is coordinating knowledge between Mexico and Canada as nicely, she famous.
On the native degree, well being departments are ramping up their surveillance efforts.
Many World Cup host cities and counties are leaning on wastewater surveillance, a public well being software that gained prominence throughout the Covid pandemic. The method permits officers to detect indicators of illness spreading in a group by way of sewage samples, typically earlier than outbreaks are recognized by way of conventional testing.
For instance, Dallas is rising its wastewater pattern websites to cowl practically your entire county, Huang mentioned. The county can also be implementing metagenomic testing, which is broadly extracting and sequencing sewage samples to establish each micro organism, virus and fungus moderately than a particular one, he added.
Huang mentioned Dallas can also be enhancing its mosquito surveillance by monitoring not just for West Nile virus, which is endemic within the area, but additionally ailments akin to dengue, chikungunya and Zika.
In the meantime, Philadelphia is deploying a brand new cellular lab that may check samples on website, rushing up the detection of potential well being threats and lowering the necessity to ship specimens to specialised labs elsewhere within the state or nation, Garrow mentioned. He famous that the lab, which launched in June, goals to spice up testing capability and attain areas much less centrally positioned.
Dr. Margaret Aldrich, a pediatric epidemiologist at NYU Langone, mentioned she believes within the U.S. “we’re truly higher ready, actually, than we ever have been for high-consequence infectious ailments.”
“There is a very sturdy system in america,” Aldrich mentioned. “The departments of well being are actually persevering with to keep up that arduous work and guaranteeing that, as we at all times say, if we’re doing our job, you do not see it.”
— CNBC’s Natalie Rice contributed to this report
