The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) soccer team has cancelled a three-day World Cup preparation training camp and a planned farewell to fans within the capital Kinshasa because of the Ebola outbreak within the east of the country.
The World Health Organization declared the Ebola disease outbreak brought on by a rare virus in Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday, with at the least 139 suspected deaths and greater than 600 suspected cases.
Congo is scheduled to play World Cup warm-up games against Denmark in Liege, Belgium, on June 3 and Chile in southern Spain on June 9. Each matches are going ahead as planned, team spokesman Jerry Kalemo told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
“There have been three stages of preparation: in Kinshasa to say goodbye to the general public, Belgium and Spain, with two friendly matches against Denmark in Liege and Chile in Spain and the third stage from June 11 in Houston, United States. Just one stage was cancelled — the one in Kinshasa,” Kalemo said.
The Congo players and the team’s French coach, Sébastien Desabre, are based outside of the central African country, with most of them playing in France.
Kalemo said that among the team staff who’re based in Congo were “leaving in the following hours” on Wednesday.
A FIFA spokesperson told The Latest York Times that the organization is “aware of and monitoring the situation regarding an Ebola outbreak and is in close communication with the Congo DR Football Association to be certain that the team are made aware of all medical and security guidance.”
The White House World Cup task force, housed under the Department of Homeland Security, told The Associated Press that it’s “coordinating closely” with various agencies on health and security matters and that the federal government is “closely monitoring” the outbreak.
U.S. government invoked emergency public health rule
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said this week that the U.S. would ban the entry of all foreign nationals who had been in Congo, Uganda and South Sudan inside the past three weeks. The ban lasts for 30 days.
“It’s been confined straight away to Africa however it’s something that’s had a breakout,” U.S. President Donald Trump said in regards to the Ebola outbreak on Monday while talking to the press.
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A U.S. official told The Associated Press the Congolese World Cup team wouldn’t be affected by the CDC entry ban since it had been training in Europe for the past several weeks.
Members of the Congolese World Cup delegation who did return to Congo in the course of the 21-day period shall be subject to the identical quarantine requirements as U.S. residents looking for to return from affected countries, in accordance with the U.S. official.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand has said Canada currently has no plans to implement a travel ban but is closely monitoring the situation.
The Public Health Agency of Canada said it would proceed to implement appropriate health protocols should a case be imported to Canada. It’s going to also work with international and domestic partners from provinces and territories to tell their response and protect the health of Canadians.
Ebola disease is a severe, often fatal illness that affects humans and other primates, in accordance with the WHO.
The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals, comparable to fruit bats, porcupines and non-human primates, including gorillas, monkeys and chimpanzees, after which spreads within the human population through direct contact with blood, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people and with surfaces and materials, comparable to clothing and bedding, contaminated with the fluids.
The Bundibugyo virus was first detected in Uganda’s Bundibugyo district during a 2007-08 outbreak that infected 149 people and killed 37. The second time was in 2012, in an outbreak in Isiro, Congo, where 57 cases and 29 deaths were reported.
The virus is spread the identical way as other Ebola viruses: through close contact with sick or deceased patients’ bodily fluids, comparable to sweat, blood, feces or vomit. Health-care staff and relations caring for sick patients face the very best risk, experts said.
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, infectious diseases physician, told Global National that the virus is transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids, which reduces the likelihood of transmission in comparison with airborne viruses.
“We’ve seen measles imported to Canada and other infectious diseases, but I believe the danger of Ebola can be extraordinarily small, but after all not zero per cent,” Bogoch said.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that there are almost 600 suspected cases and 139 suspected deaths, and he expects those numbers will keep increasing.
He said he determined that the situation was “not a pandemic emergency, which is the brand new and highest classification under the amended International Health Regulations.”
Limited tools available for diagnosis and vaccines for containment
Dr. Donald Vinh, an infectious disease physician, told Global News that global health officials worry in regards to the conditions through which the Ebola outbreak is unfolding.
“There’s a big risk of cross-border spread between the DRC and Uganda. The true scale of the outbreak is probably going larger than our current estimate due to the continuing transmission in the previous few weeks, delayed detection and all the uncertainty and instability in that area,” Vinh said, adding that the regional problem has the potential to expand even further.
The Bundibugyo strain of Ebola is different than the Zaire strain, and the present outbreak has very limited tools available for diagnosis and vaccines for public health containment, in accordance with Vinh.
“Why that’s necessary is since the tools that were developed to diagnose the Zaire strain don’t necessarily work for the Bundibugyo strain. The vaccines that were developed for the Zaire strain are also not predicted to work for the Bundibugyo strain,” he said.
He said that the incubation period for the Bundibugyo strain is from two days to 3 weeks, which shouldn’t affect those players participating within the World Cup.
“Typically, it’s around 4 to 10 days, so it’s unlikely that folks are going to find a way to participate as participants or as players on this international soccer stage while they’re infected, but they definitely can turn into symptomatic after travelling and so they can transmit after they turn into symptomatic,” Vinh said.
“That’s where now we have to be concerned … not the FIFA World Cup as much because it’s global travel anywhere world wide in the course of the incubation period,” he added.
Vinh also noted a “very fragile health-care system” within the DRC and Uganda, where the outbreak is going on.
“It is a concern that now we have to take seriously. All of those aspects are compounded by the indisputable fact that there had been limited interest in trying to supply a worldwide health safety blanket, admittedly, [for] the U.S. funding to cope with some of these outbreaks for low-income countries,” Vinh continued.
“It has crippled among the measures that will be put into place quickly and that’s the reason there’s a necessity now for the general public health emergency declaration by the WHO.”
He said that if we are able to get past two incubation periods with none latest cases, that’s when the outbreak shall be under control.
“It’s been done before. It must be done again. But this is actually a mirrored image that we cannot just react each time there’s an outbreak. We actually must be proactive globally to forestall this stuff from happening because in the event that they occur in any individual else’s backyard, they will move to our front yard,” Vinh added.
On Wednesday, the WHO director-general said there are several aspects that “warrant serious concern in regards to the potential for further spread and further deaths.”
“First, beyond the confirmed Ebola cases, there are almost 600 suspected cases and 139 suspected deaths. We expect those numbers to maintain increasing, given the period of time the virus was circulating before the outbreak was detected,” he said.
The epidemic has also expanded, with cases reported in several urban areas, in accordance with Ghebreyesus.
“Deaths have been reported amongst medical examiners, indicating healthcare-associated transmission,” he said, adding that there may be “significant population movement in the world.”
“The province of Ituri is extremely insecure. Conflict has intensified since late 2025, and fighting has escalated significantly over the past two months, with over 100,000 people newly displaced,” Ghebreyesus continued. “The realm can be a mining zone, with high levels of population movement that increase the danger of further spread.”
—with files from The Associated Press