As athletes and tens of millions 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 — the USA, 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 through the event is low, infectious illness consultants informed CNBC. Public well being departments, hospitals and different companions are additionally nicely geared up to reply to a variety of potential threats — even after sweeping cuts to essential federal businesses and the U.S. exiting from the WHO beneath the Trump administration.
“Ebola and hantavirus, I fear about lots much less,” Dr. Shruti Gohil, the affiliate medical director for College of California, Irvine Well being Epidemiology and An infection Prevention, stated in an interview. “The general chance of danger isn’t nonzero, but it surely’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 Photos
As an alternative, consultants say extra contagious threats may pose higher challenges through the event and different massive occasions this summer season, significantly as a result of worldwide guests may transfer by 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 resembling Covid-19 and influenza. The priority comes after the U.S. recorded its highest variety of measles instances in many years final 12 months, pushed partly by rising vaccine hesitancy and declining immunization charges.
Some consultants additionally pointed to arboviruses unfold by contaminated bugs, resembling dengue, whereas others highlighted heat-related and foodborne diseases as notable dangers past infectious ailments.
Making ready for the World Cup has concerned scaling up present packages, resembling 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 defend, however I do not need that to get misplaced within the precise Herculean effort it takes to have an operational invisible defend, 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,” stated 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,” stated Tran, who’s overseeing the response in a bunch metropolis.
Ebola danger is low regardless of present outbreak
Medical doctors With out Borders well being employees sporting private protecting tools transfer by the remoted purple zone to observe sufferers, present medical care and guarantee sanitation on the Ebola Therapy Middle in Munigi in Congo on June 2, 2026.
Jospin Mwisha | AFP | Getty Photos
Ebola doesn’t unfold as simply as Covid and different respiratory ailments, making it much less of a menace through the World Cup regardless of the rising outbreak, consultants stated.
International well being authorities have confirmed greater than 260 instances and are investigating 1,100 extra potential infections in Congo and Uganda, in response to the WHO. The present pressure of Ebola, the Bundibugyo virus, is an typically deadly type of the illness with no authorised remedy or vaccine.
However there have been no instances 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 displaying signs, stated 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 quite than attend massive occasions with different individuals, he added.
“It isn’t a respiratory virus; it is not 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 stated.
Nonetheless, federal and native public well being officers are gearing up to reply to Ebola dangers.
The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention has applied 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 designated airports in Atlanta, Houston, New York or the Washington space, the place they may bear public well being screening.
Throughout these screenings, CDC employees will survey people about their journey historical past and signs, examine 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 stated.
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 observe them for indicators of sickness, stated 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 may 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 informed CNBC. The plans embrace figuring out which amenities would obtain sufferers, getting ready these locations for infection-control protocols and arranging specialised transportation if wanted.
Huang stated the county additionally held a session to coach 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 the usage of private protecting tools.
Ebola “is certainly prime of thoughts as a heavy factor with our historical past,” Huang stated.
In an announcement to CNBC, FIFA stated 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 be informing ticket holders residing in Congo, South Sudan and Uganda of journey issues forward of the occasion.
Measles, respiratory ailments elevate concern
Measles is “our greatest concern” when it comes to infectious ailments on the World Cup because it is without doubt one of the most contagious viruses, stated 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 might have a illness that is as infectious as this, individuals simply must be in the identical airplane for an hour or two and swiftly you might have an outbreak that is transferred to some other place,” Garrow informed CNBC.
Philadelphia well being officers have centered on guaranteeing healthcare suppliers can shortly determine measles instances, share data and coordinate response efforts as the town prepares to host matches, he stated. However worldwide guests pose a specific problem as a result of they typically journey to quite a few areas 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 prepare station on the World Commerce Middle transportation hub in New York on Could 27, 2026.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Photos
The U.S. had extra measles instances in 2025 than in another 12 months since 1991, with greater than 2,100 confirmed instances. Circumstances had been reported in 45 jurisdictions in 2025, and there have been 48 outbreaks, in contrast with 16 the earlier 12 months, in response to the CDC.
The U.S. eradicated measles in 2000, however instances have risen as misinformation spreads and vaccination charges decline. About 93% of confirmed measles instances final 12 months had been amongst individuals who had been unvaccinated or whose vaccination standing was unknown, CDC information reveals.
Moreover measles, Houston’s Tran stated she’s involved about different ailments prone to greater unfold as vaccination charges drop within the U.S., resembling Covid and the flu.
“The transmissibility being airborne makes them so more likely to trigger a public well being menace than Ebola,” she stated.
However Houston, Tran stated, has skilled epidemiologists who’re monitoring and contract-tracing people anytime there’s a vaccine-preventable illness that might develop into an outbreak.
Norovirus, food-borne and heat-related diseases in addition to sexually transmitted infectious may additionally pose challenges through the event, some public well being officers informed CNBC.
However public well being departments have been working to make sure that meals distributors on the World Cup and associated gatherings have the correct permits to promote to the general public, stated Dr. Monika Roy, the deputy well being officer and infectious illness and response department director for the County of Santa Clara, California. The county exterior of San Francisco may even host matches.
Along with keeping track of allowing, Houston has groups of registered sanitarians prepared to analyze any foodborne diseases, 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 12 months’s World Cup brings “added layers of challenges,” and never solely due to the size of the occasion, stated Dr. Rebecca Katz, who leads Georgetown College’s Middle for International Well being Science and Safety. She stated the event comes after useful resource cuts to public well being and the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO earlier this 12 months, which has “strained” worldwide mechanisms for illness sharing.
Trump lower 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 presently no everlasting CDC director or U.S. surgeon normal, each positions that play a essential function in responding to illness threats.
Regardless of the cuts, the CDC stated 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 Process Pressure” and is participating with public well being departments in host cities, different federal businesses and companion organizations. The CDC has additionally developed a World Cup information dashboard, which is in last growth, to offer state and native well being departments higher visibility into illness traits throughout jurisdictions, an company spokesperson stated 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 neighborhood to assist help that” and “attempt to bounce in and fill a few of these data gaps,” Katz stated.
That is one motive why Katz in Could launched the Well being Safety Operations Middle, a hub for monitoring potential infectious illness threats that can distribute every day scenario experiences beginning Thursday to a whole bunch of state and native well being officers, federal businesses, event organizers and hospital emergency managers, amongst others. It is a part of the Nationwide Middle for Well being Safety and Resilience, a joint effort between Georgetown College and MedStar Well being.
Among the many heart’s efforts is collaborating in every day stand-up calls hosted by the Pan American Well being Group, a regional workplace of the WHO, and sharing that data straight with native, state and federal jurisdictions, Katz stated. PAHO is coordinating information 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 instrument that gained prominence through the Covid pandemic. The strategy permits officers to detect indicators of illness spreading in a neighborhood by sewage samples, typically earlier than outbreaks are recognized by conventional testing.
For instance, Dallas is rising its wastewater pattern websites to cowl practically the whole county, Huang stated. The county can be implementing metagenomic testing, which is broadly extracting and sequencing sewage samples to determine each micro organism, virus and fungus quite than a selected one, he added.
Huang stated Dallas can be enhancing its mosquito surveillance by monitoring not just for West Nile virus, which is endemic within the area, but additionally ailments resembling dengue, chikungunya and Zika.
In the meantime, Philadelphia is deploying a brand new cellular lab that may check samples on website, dashing 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 stated. 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, stated 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 the USA,” Aldrich stated. “The departments of well being are actually persevering with to keep up that arduous work and guaranteeing that, as we all the time say, if we’re doing our job, you do not see it.”
— CNBC’s Natalie Rice contributed to this report