CDC ‘working with FIFA to ensure safety’ of World Cup as team from Ebola outbreak epicenter is set to travel to US
The CDC said Tuesday it is working closely with FIFA on safety and screening measures ahead of the World Cup, where a team from Congo, which has experienced an Ebola outbreak, plans to travel to the United States for the tournament.
The World Cup is scheduled to start on June 11, and the Democratic Republic of Congo men’s soccer team is scheduled to play against Portugal on June 17 in Houston, Texas.
However, concerns are growing as the Democratic Republic of the Congo is dealing with an Ebola outbreak involving the Ebola strain Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD), which currently has no approved vaccine or treatment and kills up to half of the people it infects.
An American doctor working in the Democratic Republic of Congo contracted the virus in the latest outbreak in the African country, and six other American workers are feared to have been exposed to the virus. All are being evacuated to Germany and the Czech Republic for care.
The CDC raised its travel warning for the DRC to level 3, warning Americans to ‘reconsider nonessential travel.’
The agency also announced Monday that it would increase screening and monitoring for people coming from areas affected by Ebola outbreaks and restrict entry to non-U.S. passport holders who have been in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo or South Sudan in the past 21 days.
At least 136 people have died due to the outbreak and more than 540 cases are currently suspected. Another person died in neighboring Uganda.
CDC officials did not elaborate on screening and procedures ahead of the World Cup, but reiterated that it was ‘actively working with FIFA to ensure safe travel and passage’ and to ensure ‘the American public remains safe throughout the competition.’
Security guards stand outside the National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB) Rodolphe Merieux Laboratory, where samples from suspected Ebola cases are being tested in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Democratic Republic of Congo men’s soccer team is scheduled to play at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas (pictured above) in June.
Officials said the risk to the general U.S. public was low but urged travelers to the area to avoid contact with sick people.
The CDC also said travelers should watch for Ebola symptoms for 21 days after leaving the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
About 25 people work at the U.S. office in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the CDC said it would send another person to the region from Atlanta.
It is also sending personal protective equipment and distributing additional resources to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda to provide ‘direct technical assistance for aggressive disease surveillance and contact tracing’.
This is the 17th Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the virus has been endemic since its discovery in 1976, but only the third caused by the Bundibugyo strain.
Two other BVD outbreaks occurred in 2007 and 2012.
The most recent Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo occurred in 2018 and 2020, killing more than 1,000 people each. The largest Ebola outbreak occurred in West Africa between 2014 and 2016, with more than 28,600 cases reported.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said that the current outbreak does not meet the criteria for a pandemic but is considered an ‘international public health emergency’.
Countries that share borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo, such as Uganda and Rwanda, face the risk of further spread.
A man sprays water on a tent at an Ebola treatment center in Bunia, Congo
Ebola is spread through contact with the blood or body fluids of an infected person, as well as through contact with contaminated objects or infected animals such as bats or primates.
Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pain and weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and unexplained bleeding or bruising.
The mortality rate of the Bundibugyo virus varies between 25 and 50 percent.
The Zaire strain, the most common type of Ebola, can be treated with the drugs Inmazeb and Ebanga and the Ervebo vaccine, which was administered only during the epidemic.
“Unfortunately, Bundibugyo has fewer proven countermeasures than Zaire ebolavirus, for which vaccines are highly effective in controlling outbreaks,” Amanda Rojek, Associate Professor of Health Emergencies at the Institute of Pandemic Sciences at the University of Oxford, said in a statement.
The first known suspected case, a healthcare worker in the Democratic Republic of Congo, developed symptoms on April 24, the WHO said on Sunday. Two infected people from the Democratic Republic of Congo traveled separately to Kampala, the capital of neighboring Uganda, where one died.
WHO said there was no indication that the epidemic was continuing in Uganda.
