Disease surveillance specialists will spend this summer analyzing sewage systems and social media platforms to protect soccer enthusiasts and communities from serious health threats during the World Cup, which represents one of the most massive and internationally diverse gatherings ever planned.
A Washington D.C.-based public health team intends to track wastewater and online discussions to identify and monitor infectious diseases that might surface in U.S. or Canadian cities welcoming World Cup teams, matches, and millions of visitors, according to event coordinators.
The 39-day tournament begins in Mexico on Thursday. Over 6.5 million soccer enthusiasts from more than 100 nations are anticipated to attend 104 matches across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
The magnitude of the competition and worldwide travel patterns create elevated risks for swift disease spread during a period when overwhelmed U.S. public health systems are managing domestic and international outbreaks of measles, Ebola and hantavirus, according to health security specialists.
Funding reductions and personnel cuts during the Trump administration, combined with the U.S. exit from the World Health Organization, have intensified these difficulties, according to coordinators of the new disease-monitoring program.
The recently established team of public health specialists has transformed a Georgetown University laboratory into an epidemiological operations center. The setup combines academic institutions, non-profit organizations and private companies supporting government agencies.
The group is currently developing daily status updates to identify emerging threats and any urgent action requirements for hospital emergency coordinators and public health officials at local, state, federal and international levels, plus FIFA, soccer’s governing organization and World Cup coordinator.
The command center, established through partnership with the MedStar Health regional hospital network, serves as a practice run for upcoming events, including the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. MedStar operates one of the country’s 13 biocontainment facilities.
Sophisticated wastewater testing, utilizing DNA and RNA sequencing to identify genetic material from various microorganisms without requiring laboratory cultivation, represents a crucial component in tracking infectious disease dangers, explained Rebecca Katz, director of Georgetown’s Center for Global Health Science and Security and leader of the new disease monitoring program.
“It’s incredibly powerful,” Katz said. Her group is currently obtaining such information from collection points in the U.S. and Canada, plus various other health monitoring resources in all three World Cup host nations.
Identifying disease-causing organisms in wastewater can indicate a developing outbreak, providing health authorities time to alert medical professionals to watch for symptoms of illnesses that could otherwise be incorrectly diagnosed, and to encourage the public to take protective measures.
Significant media coverage has concentrated on the ongoing Ebola crisis in Africa. However, Katz described the frequently deadly hemorrhagic fever as presenting a “very low risk to the general public” in North America. The World Cup squad and support personnel from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the nation at the center of the Ebola outbreak, have undergone precautionary isolation in Belgium before traveling to the United States, though most players were in Europe when the outbreak occurred.
Katz indicated her team would focus particularly on measles transmission, which is nearing a record for U.S. case totals this year – approximately 2,000 thus far – and has returned in areas of Mexico and Canada.
Further dangers come from mosquito-transmitted illnesses such as dengue, also called “breakbone fever,” and a related disease, chikungunya. Both emerge from tropical regions and can be transported by infected travelers and then spread by mosquitoes.
Katz recruited 20 colleagues plus donated support and help from 30 additional organizations for her operations facility. These include multiple wastewater monitoring companies that are gathering and examining sewage samples and providing their findings to Katz’s team at no cost.
Additional essential methods include monitoring anonymous information from electronic health records and examining open-source social media sites for details indicating transmission clusters, Katz explained.
She referenced a previous case of public health officials identifying a gastrointestinal illness outbreak through social media discussions about a sudden increase in toilet paper purchases.
The Georgetown team will supplement the efforts of multiple U.S. agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, Katz noted.
Funding for the center has originated from a small family foundation and Georgetown, along with donated contributions from partners such as the University of Nebraska.
