Ebola outbreak in the \u2060Democratic Republic of Congo has infected more than 675 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The risk that a traveler infected with Ebola could arrive in the United States during the 2026 World Cup tournament that kicked off last week is low but not zero, and if that happens, United States (US) hospitals are ready to respond, US infectious disease experts say.
It wasn\u2019t always so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, \u200ba Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan, arrived in a Dallas hospital with Ebola symptoms and was turned away before being admitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two nurses were infected but survived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That led to $260 million in US funding for \u200cEbola preparedness training and response capabilities and 13 specialized treatment centers all intended to help hospitals identify, isolate and safely care for suspected Ebola patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to be able to prevent 100% of infections, but we certainly are the most prepared that we have ever been,\u201d said Dr. Gavin Harris, an expert in serious communicable diseases at Emory University in Atlanta, one of 11 US World Cup host cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Public health officials and hospitals in the U.S. host cities have been preparing for a range of infectious disease threats as 6.5 million fans travel across North \u200bAmerica during the 39-day event featuring 104 matches in the United States, Mexico and Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Pan American Health Organisation and the World Health Organisation have all described the risk \u200bof Ebola to World Cup host countries as low, citing measles, COVID-19 and influenza \u2013 which spread when large crowds gather \u2013 as the most likely threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the Ebola outbreak in the \u2060Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that has infected more than 675 people and killed more than 135 remains a concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe risk of Ebola to anyone at the World Cup is extremely low. Ebola isn\u2019t airborne and doesn\u2019t spread through casual contact \u200bit requires direct contact with the body fluids of someone who is ill,\u201d said Dr. Tom Frieden, chief executive of Resolve to Save Lives and former director of the CDC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut low isn\u2019t zero, and it won\u2019t be zero until the outbreak \u200bis stopped at its source in DRC.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Ebola outbreak in the \u2060Democratic Republic of Congo has infected more than 675 people. The risk that a traveler infected with Ebola could arrive in the United States during the 2026 World Cup tournament that kicked off last week is low but not zero, and if that happens, United States (US) hospitals are ready to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-416293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12903"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416293"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416294,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416293\/revisions\/416294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}