Doctors are preparing for the threat of deadly infectious disease outbreaks at this summer's World Cup, including Ebola, cholera, SARS, and other highly contagious illnesses. With over seven million football fans expected to travel to the United States, Canada, and Mexico for the 48-team tournament, medics are on high alert.
Massive Training Exercise
A training exercise saw 500 health providers from New York and New Jersey come together for four days to practice emergency air transport. They simulated transporting patients with infectious diseases from Toronto, a World Cup host city, to LaGuardia Airport in Queens. The "patients" were then taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment, testing the ability to handle a portable bio-containment unit—a device used to isolate and transport patients with highly contagious diseases.
Dr. Vikramjit Mukherjee, chief of critical care at Bellevue Hospital, said: "The whole health care system in New York City will be on the alert for all of these events. We're looking at it like a huge migration event. Because of what we've seen in the last few years—Ebola, Covid, and mpox—we feel that we will be the ones who will be affected first for the next outbreak, and therefore have an additional responsibility of keeping prepared."
Hospital Readiness
Hackensack Meridian Health in New Jersey, the closest Level 1 trauma center to MetLife Stadium, has been training for two years. The stadium will host eight matches, including England's third group match against Panama on June 27 and the World Cup Final on July 19. Dr. Gregory Sugalski, an Army veteran and chair of emergency medicine, assured fans: "Our staff has been training and drilling for two years for this event. We've been on the frontline of care for major NFL games, high-profile concerts, and major entertainment events."
Other medical facilities across New Jersey, including St. Michael's Medical Center, Cooper University Hospital, and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, have also undergone extensive training. The White House created a FIFA task force, led by Andrew Giuliani, to coordinate federal efforts for safety.
Bellevue spokesperson Noel Alicea noted: "That was the biggest drill we've done, because that involved local, state, federal, and international partners." The tournament begins on June 10, with England based in Kansas City and playing group matches in Dallas, Boston, and New York.
