The CDC said Tuesday it was working closely with FIFA on safety and screening measures ahead of the World Cup as a team from Congo, which is experiencing an Ebola outbreak, plans to travel to the US for the tournament.
The World Cup is scheduled to kick off on June 11 and the men’s soccer team from the Democratic Republic of Congo is scheduled to play in Houston, Texas, against Portugal on June 17.
However, concerns are arising because the DRC is currently dealing with an Ebola outbreak involving the Ebola strain Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD), which has no approved vaccine or treatment and kills up to half of people it infects.
An American doctor working in the DRC has contracted the virus in the African nation’s latest outbreak and six other American workers are feared to have been exposed. They all are being evacuated to Germany and the Czech Republic for care.
The CDC has elevated a travel advisory to the DRC to level 3, warning Americans to ‘reconsider nonessential travel.’
The agency also announced on Monday that it was increasing screening and monitoring for people arriving from areas affected by Ebola outbreaks and restricting entry for non-US passport holders if they have been in Uganda, the DRC or South Sudan in the past 21 days.
The outbreak has left at least 136 people dead with more than 540 cases now suspected. One additional person has died in neighboring Uganda.
CDC officials did not provide specifics surrounding screening and procedures ahead of the World Cup, but reiterated that it is ‘actively working with FIFA to ensure safe traveling and passage’ and to ensure the ‘American public remains safe throughout’ the competition.
Guards stand outside the Rodolphe Merieux Laboratory, National Biomedical Research Institute (INRB), where samples from suspected Ebola cases are being tested in the Democratic Republic of Congo
The men’s soccer team from the Democratic Republic of Congo is scheduled to play in the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas (pictured above) in June
The officials said the risk to the general US public remains low but urged travelers to the area to avoid contact with any sick individuals.
The CDC also said travelers should watch for symptoms of Ebola for 21 days after leaving the DRC.
About 25 people are working in the US office in the DRC, and the CDC said it is sending another person to the region from Atlanta.
It is also sending personal protective equipment and deploying additional resources to the DRC and Uganda to provide ‘direct technical assistance for aggressive disease tracking and contact tracing.’
This is the 17th Ebola outbreak in the DRC, where the virus is endemic, since it was discovered in 1976 but only the third caused by the Bundibugyo strain.
The other two BVD outbreaks were in 2007 and 2012.
The most recent Ebola outbreaks in the DRC were in 2018 and 2020 and they killed more than 1,000 people each. The largest Ebola outbreak occurred in 2014 to 2016 in West Africa when more than 28,600 cases were reported.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the current outbreak does not meet the criteria of a pandemic, but it is considered a ‘public health emergency of international concern.’
Countries sharing borders with DRC, such as Uganda and Rwanda, are at an increased risk of further spread.
A man sprays a tent at an Ebola treatment center in Bunia, Congo
Ebola spreads through contact with the blood or body fluids of an infected person, as well as 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 for the Bundibugyo virus ranges from 25 to 50 percent.
The Zaire strain, which is the most common form of Ebola, can be treated with the drugs Inmazeb and Ebanga and the Ervebo vaccine, which is administered only during outbreaks.
‘Unfortunately, Bundibugyo has fewer proven countermeasures than Zaire ebolavirus, where vaccines have been highly effective in controlling outbreaks,’ Amanda Rojek, Associate Professor of Health Emergencies, Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford, said in a statement.
The WHO said Sunday that the first known suspected case, a health worker in DRC, developed symptoms on April 24. Two infected people from DRC traveled separately from each other to Kampala, the capital of neighboring Uganda, where one died.
The WHO said there is no indication of ongoing transmission in Uganda.
