Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and a network of medical institutions have created a Health Security Operations Center that will monitor infection threats during the World Cup, Scientific Amer reports.ican. Special monitoring will include measles, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, as well as less common but potentially dangerous infections, including dengue and Ebola.
The 2026 World Cup will open with the Mexico-South Africa match on June 11 at the Azteca Stadium in the Mexican capital of Mexico, after which the baton will be taken over by the Canadian Toronto on June 12 with the Canada-Bosnia and Herzegovina match and the American Inglewood (California), where the US national team will meet with the Paraguay team. About 5 million fans are expected to visit 16 cities in the three host countries of Mexico, the United States and Canada. The majority of matches will take place in the United States.
Such large-scale gatherings of people at airports, hotels, stadiums and fan zones create favorable conditions for the spread of diseases, among which the greatest risk is posed by respiratory viral infections, measles, dengue and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), writes The Washington Post.
The center began work on June 1. During the championship, he will collaborate with wastewater monitoring sites, genomic laboratories, biotech companies and local health departments. Health authorities will receive daily reports on the current epidemiological situation, and in the event of serious risks, emergency notifications.
A key monitoring tool will be wastewater analysis. The method makes it possible to identify fragments of viral and other pathogenic DNA and RNA entering sewer systems, and thereby assess the level of spread of infections. According to project leader Rebecca Katz, director of the Center for Global Health and Security at Georgetown University, wastewater monitoring can often detect the spread of pathogens days before doctors see an increase in the number of cases.
Once the virus is discovered, researchers will be able to decipher its genome to identify the specific strain, determine the origin of the pathogen, and trace connections between outbreaks in different regions. The system will also use anonymized medical data and messages on social networks about possible diseases.
Real-time dashboards have already been developed to track the five most dangerous viruses: SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), influenza, measles, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and norovirus. The system will also monitor the spread of monkeypox, sexually transmitted infections, dengue fever, Ebola and hantavirus.
The greatest concern among experts is measles, one of the most contagious viral diseases in the world. The virus can survive in the air for up to two hours after an infected person has left the room, and spreads quickly among people without immunity. An infected traveler can spread the infection to hundreds of people at airports, hotels, public transport, restaurants and stadiums before symptoms appear. Since the beginning of the year, there have been nearly 2,000 cases of measles reported in the United States.
Dengue fever remains another potential threat. Recently, a significant increase in incidence has been reported in Puerto Rico, and cases of local transmission have been reported periodically in several US states. Experts fear that infected tourists could travel to areas where the mosquitoes that carry the disease live, creating conditions for further spread of the virus. The championship matches will take place during the peak mosquito season in many host cities, including Miami (Florida), Houston (Texas), Dallas (Texas) and Los Angeles (California).
For Ebola, the risk to the general public remains low because the disease is spread through contact with the blood or body fluids of a body infected with the virus. As an example, experts cite the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, which coincided with the largest Ebola outbreak in history in West Africa (2014-2016) – no cases of the spread of the disease occurred during the tournament.
Let us remind you that the World Health Organization (WHO) previously reported a high risk for residents of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) due to an outbreak of viral fever. In this country, more than 100 people have recently become its victims, and several hundred more have fallen ill. At least several dozen diagnoses have been laboratory confirmed, including two cases of Ebola in neighboring Uganda.
There are a number of restrictions in place in the United States: in May, the US Department of Health temporarily prohibited entry into the country for its own citizens who had been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda or South Sudan for 21 days. In addition, Congolese players who trained in Europe were required to quarantine for 21 days before entering the United States.
