How Authorities are Protecting Public Health During the FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup started on June 11 and will end on July 19. 48 national teams are taking part, and this is an extra 16 teams when compared to the number of national teams that participated in the last edition that took place in Qatar in 2022. 100 matches are scheduled to be played across the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

An international sporting event of this magnitude presents a major challenge to public health planners, and authorities have been working fervently to put in place measures geared at keeping infectious disease risks at bay during the tournament. We discuss some of the measures that may not be immediately visible to the casual observer.

Prof. Rebecca Katz is leading an operations center in Georgetown overseeing health security operations during the World Cup. She revealed that wastewater monitoring is a major surveillance mechanism that they are relying on to detect infectious disease outbreaks in time. She says this method was extensively used when Qatar hosted the FIFA World Cup four years ago, and U.S. public health officials are borrowing from that experience.

The team Katz is working with will boost efforts being undertaken by various host cities by sharing information with federal, state and local authorities about any developments of concern.

A number of host cities and states have come up with their own innovative ways to protect public health. For example, Texas has created a hotline that clinicians can call if they encounter a medical case that they are unfamiliar with. Calls to this center will be received by a nurse, who will then assess the concern of the clinician and put an infectious disease doctor on the line for cases that require specialists’ input.

In Philadelphia, the health department has intensified its food inspection activities, especially for food trucks. This is intended to minimize incidents of food-borne infectious diseases. The city is also running a campaign aimed at informing fans about safety from risks like poor air quality and heat-related risks.

Other states and cities hosting World Cup matches have also come up with their own public health campaigns for this season. For example, a health commission in New Jersey is running a campaign urging fans to “keep germs on the bench,” a campaign leveraging how coaches keep reserve players off the pitch sitting inactive on a bench.

Each jurisdiction hosting matches or fans has implemented its own system to prevent and deal with any infectious disease cases, and federal agencies like the CDC are coordinating with various authorities to ensure the World Cup takes place with health risks sufficiently prevented or managed.

Firms like Co-Diagnostics Inc. (NASDAQ: CODX) are likely to take a keen interest in how infectious disease prevention and control is handled at the local, county, state and federal levels since this is an area where the diagnostic tools they are developing could be handy.

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