Fresh World Cup warning as doctors brace for deadly disease outbreak | World | News
A packed crowd in the stands at the 2022 World Cup (Image: Getty)
U.S. hospitals are bracing for a mass infestation of deadly infections and viruses spread by millions of fans attending this summer’s FIFA World Cup.
Doctors and virologists fear that the massive influx of fans from around the world could cause potentially deadly germs such as measles, hepatitis A, typhoid, malaria, SARS and even Ebola to spread in the United States.
“We’re looking at this as if it were a major global migration event,” Vikramjit Mukherjee, MD, chief of the critical care and special pathogens program at Bellevue Hospital in New York, told HealthBeat, a local health magazine.
He added: “The entire healthcare system in New York City is going to be on some level of alert for all of this.”
About 10 million people are expected to travel to North America this summer, where 48 teams will compete to decide who is the best in the world.
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World Cup trophy being delivered to Donald Trump in the Oval Office (Image: Getty)
Sixteen cities will jointly host the tournament: eleven in the United States, three in Mexico and two in Canada.
Dr Mukherjee added: “We’re doing a lot of training going into June, going to the hospitals next to MetLife stadium (which hosts fixtures) where people will be more prone to showing symptoms, and making sure the front-end talent is ready.”
According to the research paper “Sports fever! Getting the ball rolling to prevent infections at the World Cup™ and beyond”, published ahead of the World Cup US National Library of MedicineThe tournament will “significantly increase the transmission of infectious diseases.”
He adds: “Physical proximity, sharing of food, drink, utensils and celebratory hugs (after goals, victories) are potential mechanisms of transmission.
“Infectious diseases can spread through a variety of means, including respiratory droplets, aerosol particles, fecal-oral routes, direct contact (i.e., touch and sexual transmission), and indirect contact with contaminated surfaces.
“This risk is increased by mass gatherings that bring together people with different health conditions, vaccination levels, and recent travelers from a wide range of countries that may have variable infectious disease endemicity not present in a particular host country, all of which result in an environment in which susceptible individuals are exposed to a wide range of potential pathogens.”
“Thus, a competitive “mega sporting event” such as the World Cup or the Olympics requires medical personnel (HCP) and public health officials to support preparedness efforts and have awareness of potential consequences for players, coaches, event staff, officials, volunteers, and spectators both inside and outside the stadium.”
A hazmat team during a training exercise in Los Angeles (Image: Getty)
A training exercise saw 500 healthcare providers from New York and New Jersey gather over four days to practice emergency air transport with a group of mock patients suffering from infectious diseases from World Cup host city Toronto to LaGuardia Airport in Queens.
The tournament is co-hosted in the USA, Canada and Mexico and begins on June 10. England will be in Kansas City and play their other two group matches in Dallas and Boston.
Army veteran and head of the hospital’s emergency medicine department, Dr. “We understand the concerns sports fans may have about attending an event with many others from the United States and other countries,” Gregory Sugalski told The New York Post.
“But I want to say two words to them: ‘No fear’.
“Our staff at Hackensack Meridian has been training and drilling for this event for two years. We have been at the forefront of caring for high-profile concerts for celebrities like Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Bruce Springsteen, and major entertainment events like Wrestlemania, as well as major NFL games for the Giants and Jets.”
