World Cup Health Watch: Scientists to Monitor Wastewater and Social Media for Disease Outbreaks

• Public health experts will monitor wastewater, social media and health records during the FIFA World Cup to detect disease outbreaks early.

• Measles, dengue fever, chikungunya and Ebola are among the illnesses being closely watched as millions of fans travel across North America.

• The Georgetown University-led initiative will serve as a trial run for disease surveillance systems ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Public health experts are putting together a major disease surveillance effort during the FIFA World Cup to watch for possible outbreaks among the millions of fans expected to travel across North America for the tournament.

A new epidemiological operations center at Georgetown University will monitor wastewater samples, social media activity, and health data to help spot emerging disease threats during the 39-day competition, which begins Thursday in Mexico.

More than 6.5 million spectators from over 100 countries are expected to attend 104 matches across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, a scale of travel and crowding that health experts say could help infectious diseases spread more easily.

Monitoring emerging health threats

The initiative comes as public health authorities are still dealing with outbreaks of measles, Ebola, and hantavirus, while also keeping an eye on mosquito-borne illnesses like dengue and chikungunya.

The Georgetown team has turned a university lab into an epidemiological command center that will send daily reports to hospital emergency managers, public health officials, and FIFA organizers.

The effort brings together universities, nonprofit groups, and private-sector partners to support existing government surveillance systems.

Wastewater as an early warning tool

A key part of the project is wastewater monitoring using DNA and RNA sequencing to detect traces of disease-causing organisms before outbreaks become widespread.

“It’s incredibly powerful,” said Rebecca Katz, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Science and Security and the leader of the surveillance effort.

Katz said her team is already receiving wastewater data from sites across the United States and Canada, along with other health monitoring information from all three World Cup host countries.

Experts say this kind of surveillance can provide an early warning system, giving health officials time to alert hospitals and the public before an outbreak grows.

Diseases on the watch list

Although international attention has focused on the Ebola outbreak in Africa, Katz said the disease currently poses only a very low risk to the general public in North America.

“The often-fatal hemorrhagic fever poses a very low risk to the general public,” Katz said.

As a precaution, members of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s World Cup delegation have been quarantined in Belgium before traveling to the United States, though many of the players were already based in Europe when the outbreak began.

Measles is a bigger concern, Katz said. The United States has recorded nearly 2,000 cases this year, close to record levels, while outbreaks have also been reported in parts of Canada and Mexico.

Health experts are also watching dengue fever and chikungunya, two mosquito-borne illnesses that can be brought in by infected travelers and then spread by local mosquitoes.

Social media adds another layer

Along with lab surveillance, the team will review anonymized electronic health records and monitor public social media posts for signs of disease clusters.

Katz pointed to a past case in which officials identified a gastrointestinal outbreak after noticing unusual online chatter about increased toilet paper purchases.

The aim is to spot potential health threats as quickly as possible and give authorities useful information they can act on.

A test for future mass gatherings

Organizers said the surveillance center was created in part because public health systems are under strain.

Health security experts have warned that budget cuts, staffing shortages, and the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization under the Trump administration have made disease tracking and response more difficult.

The Georgetown effort is meant to complement agencies, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.

Katz said the operation includes 20 core staff members and support from 30 partner organizations, including wastewater surveillance companies that are providing data at no cost.

The project is being carried out with MedStar Health and will also serve as a trial run for future major international events, including the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

MedStar Health runs one of the 13 specialized biocontainment units in the United States used to handle highly infectious diseases.

Officials said the lessons learned during the World Cup could help improve disease surveillance systems for future global gatherings as international travel continues to grow.