{"id":655303,"date":"2026-05-20T22:54:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/655303\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T22:54:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:54:24","slug":"local-health-officials-prepare-for-influx-of-world-cup-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/655303\/","title":{"rendered":"Local health officials prepare for influx of World Cup fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

The spread of infectious diseases and heat-related illness are among their concerns.<\/p>\n

By Shalina Chatlani<\/a> for Stateline<\/a><\/p>\n

Health officials from the U.S. cities hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup say they are preparing to deal with infectious diseases, heat-related illness, and an array of other health threats when millions of fans, many of them from overseas, come to watch the games.<\/p>\n

The World Cup is\u00a0expected<\/a>\u00a0to draw between 5 million and 7 million soccer fans to the 11 U.S. host cities, which are Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City (in partnership with East Rutherford, New Jersey), Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle.<\/p>\n

The newly formed Big Cities Health Coalition, a consortium of health officials from 36 of the nation\u2019s largest health departments, says it has been formulating\u00a0a strategy to mitigate any negative health impacts from such a large influx of people entering the country at once.<\/p>\n

Related | World Cup washout: Tourists avoid US amid Trump\u2019s deportation debacle<\/a><\/p>\n

At a news briefing on Wednesday, health officials from Atlanta, Dallas, New York City, Philadelphia, and San Jose said they are preparing for disease monitoring and contact tracing during the weeks of soccer matches, which begin on June 11.<\/p>\n

The officials said they aren\u2019t concerned about\u00a0the hantavirus, which is very rare. However, they are worried\u00a0about the spread of\u00a0measles<\/a>\u00a0after recent outbreaks around the country.<\/p>\n

\"FILEAttribution: APA giant copy of the World Cup trophy is displayed prior to a match in Nov. 2022 at the Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah, Qatar.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody might be here for a game in Atlanta and be exposed to something \u2014 let\u2019s say measles, since that\u2019s been so prevalent lately,\u201d said Marcus Plescia, district health director at the Fulton County Board of Health, which includes the Atlanta region, \u201cBut by the time we realize that and start to look at who might be at risk, that fan might have traveled to Dallas to see their team playing there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething that happens here may actually have its impact somewhere else, and we\u2019re going to have to think about how we handle that and hand off information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alister Martin, commissioner of New York City\u2019s health and mental hygiene department, said health officials also are concerned about extreme heat, alcohol and drug use, and sexually transmitted diseases.<\/p>\n

\u201cRelevant teams from disease control to mental health have been preparing to work in new capacities for months, and most recently, we tested our emergency capacity at our healthcare facilities,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n

At the briefing, the health officials said they are strapped for resources as a result of the expiration of COVID-19-era public health funding, and that host cities have gotten federal dollars for security and infrastructure needs but not for public health.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Atlanta, at least, there\u2019s been some significant investment in infrastructure improvements, and those are very important things,\u201d Plescia said. \u201cWe\u2019ve not received a lot of direct funding for specific public health services.\u201d<\/p>\n

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