Expert: Canada should be vigilant about Ebola with World Cup coming in two weeks

Congolese football fans celebrate in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, as their team qualified for World Cup by winning over Jamaica in an intercontinental playoff, Wednesday, April 1, 2026.(AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

TORONTO — An expert on public health and communicable diseases says Canada should remain vigilant about an Ebola outbreak in Africa with the FIFA men’s World Cup coming to Toronto and Vancouver in two weeks.

Tim Sly, a professor emeritus at Toronto Metropolitan University’s school of occupational and public health, said there’s currently no need for Canada to limit travel from the Democratic Republic of Congo, even as that country grapples with an epidemic of the deadly disease. The illness, which spreads through direct contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids, is spreading faster than in previous outbreaks but it’s still confined to the DRC with no confirmed cases in Canada.

“Never underestimate Mother Nature, that’s the bottom line,” said Sly. “Mother Nature can come up with all kinds of nasty surprises, and you least expect them to rise up and bite you in the rear end, so we’ve got to keep a finger on the pulse at all times.”

Congo will be competing in the World Cup for only second time this summer, ending a 52-year absence from the international soccer tournament.

It cancelled a three-day World Cup training camp and a planned farewell to fans in the capital Kinshasa on Wednesday because of an outbreak of a rare type of Ebola known as Bundibugyo in the east of the country.

The World Health Organization has declared it a public health emergency of international concern after more than 130 people are thought to have been killed by the disease with nearly 600 suspected cases. The United States has already taken a more aggressive preventive tact than Canada, restricting entry to that country.

An Air France flight from Paris to Detroit was rerouted to Montreal on Thursday after a passenger from the DRC was allowed to board “in error.” The U.S. has new regulations that travellers from certain countries, including the Congo, can enter only through Washington, D.C.

The World Cup is set to begin in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico on June 11. This strain of Ebola has a 21-day incubation period and Sly said that gives the epidemic time to get better or worse, but it also gives world governments time to come up with a robust public health plan.

“We’re learning something every hour that goes by, that in those next two weeks we learn just how the potential for the spread is of this particular Ebola strain,” said Sly. “Hopefully governments in Australia, European Union, Canada, the States will make some sensible decisions as to how to monitor, how to mentor, how to test, and how to filter people coming in to the country and to these events.

“Our conversation may be very different in another three or four days or another week than what it is right now.”

Congo are scheduled to play World Cup-warmup matches against Denmark in Liege, Belgium on June 3 and Chile in southern Spain on June 9. Both matches are going ahead as planned, team spokesman Jerry Kalemo told The Associated Press.

Congo is playing in Houston, Guadalajara and Atlanta. But second-place finish in Group K, although unlikely with Portugal and Colombia in their group, would see them play in Toronto on July 2.

The Public Health Agency of Canada and Ontario’s Ministry of Health did not reply to requests for comment from The Canadian Press at press time.

Sly said that the players and team personnel are less of a concern, however, as they are a relatively small group that’s easy to isolate and track.

Instead, potential infection in Canada would come from fans who have travelled from an outbreak zone or alongside infected people. Packed, sun-drenched stadiums in the middle of summer could be a surprisingly ripe place for infection.

“Those areas where you have a bunch of rowdy, hot, excited, sweaty, yelling people all in the stands, of a soccer match, in the cheap seats, you’re getting a lot of contacts,” said Sly, emphasizing that Ebola is spread through contact with bodily fluids like sweat. “There’s one person under each elbow, a couple of knees behind your ears, and your knees are around somebody else’s ears, there’s a lot of connection, potential connection there, standing up and yelling, and so on, as people do at a soccer game.

“You can’t really say that there’s absolutely no potential for cross contamination or any close connection there.”

— With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 22, 2026.

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press