The first World Cup match in Kansas City is tonight — Argentina vs. Algeria — and the games over the next few weeks are expected to bring an influx of visitors to the state.
KBIA’s Rebecca Smith recently spoke with Eric Hueste who runs the Office of Emergency Coordination for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
They spoke about some of the many ways the state is working to monitor and protect the health of all soccer fans in Missouri.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Rebecca Smith: Well, how are you feeling? Tell me how you guys have been preparing for World Cup games in Kansas City. What's some of the things that have been on your mind? How are you guys planning for it? What are some of those contingencies?
Eric Hueste: Yeah, definitely. It's exciting. We're looking forward to all of our visitors, and we're continuing to look forward to providing support to our residents as they go about their lives, as well. Whether that's going to the grocery store or going to seek care at their doctor. We're here to try to make sure all of these things happen in unison.
We are certainly here to help support the boots on the ground, which is our local and regional partners, and keep our healthcare systems afloat. They are under stress all the time — certainly, any sort of terrorism or disease outbreaks is going to have a lot of stress on that system.
And we're spending a lot of time looking at data, looking at things like syndromic surveillance. For example, if you have a cough and a fever — that may be an influenza-like illness, maybe a respiratory-type illness.
Unfortunately, one of the outstanding trends they saw, and our federal partners recommended as well, was to be alert for the uptake of measles.Eric Hueste, Office of Emergency Coordination for the Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services
But we get some of this data de-identified, and it's before there's any sort of clinical diagnosis made, so we get that data very early, and we can help compare that with other facilities in the region, and better message our local partners and those hospitals to say, “Hey, we're seeing an uptick in — maybe it's a gastrointestinal illness, rash-like illness — what are you all seeing? Are you all seeing this too? What can we do to help you plan for that, and what can we do to help mitigate the situation?”
Rebecca Smith: One of the things that I think is really interesting about something like the World Cup is we're bringing the world together, and so, you know, you talked about influenza-like disease. Well, while it's not influenza season here, it certainly is in the [southern hemisphere], and so, you know, what are some of those things that are top of mind?
Eric Hueste: Certainly we've learned a lot from other states that have hosted club World Cup games, and [we] really looked at trends and what they saw.
Unfortunately, one of the outstanding trends they saw, and our federal partners recommended as well, was to be alert for the uptake of measles.
So, there's obviously some tactics you can take to prevent measles, but measles is highly contagious, stays airborne for several hours, and we are really preparing for that, watch[ing] for rash-like illness increase, working to obviously identify those cases clinically as fast as possible.
And … as obvious as it may sound, we're in Missouri in June and July, and it really is the heat. A lot of our guests live in a very warm climate, but the humidity simply isn't there.
We are worried about the heat, some. We've worked with a lot of partners to map cooling centers. Local and regional staff have done a great job at strategically placing cooling units, portable shade, keeping people, you know, long lines for busses, keeping that to a minimum — trying to get people out of that environment into a more hospitable environment to mitigate the heat-related illness.
*55 is a very good resource to report those things to our public safety partners. Those two things save a lot of lives: wear your seat belt, slow down, report aggressive driving, and move over and give someone some space.Eric Hueste, Office of Emergency Coordination for the Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services
Rebecca Smith: Something else I wanted to talk about today … is, of course, the increased chance for injury. So, you mentioned healthcare systems already being under stress. We're talking about infectious disease monitoring, but how are we preparing for a possible influx of acute injury?
Eric Hueste: We've worked a lot with our regional partners in the Kansas City area. They have done a great job, really getting together and planning for things just like that — bringing in hand experts, injury experts for things like burns, acute traumas, so that the region does stand very well prepared to handle those things. Again, we've had a very strong relationship with public safety. They are adding quite a few staff to that area, as well.
Again, we want folks to come and have a good time, but [we] want that to happen very responsibly, so that everyone has a good time.
Rebecca Smith: Well, I'm trying to think if there's anything I feel like I've neglected, but I guess just for Missourians, you know, as they go, as they come back home — anything you want them to be thinking about, prepared for, cognizant of?
Eric Hueste: Yeah, you know, I really, it's one of the things that it goes without saying, but really, as we travel about this summer through the entire state during World Cup — slow down and take your time. It really, really makes a big difference.
Increase in speed certainly increases injury — plenty of data to support that — but slow down, take your time, and report aggressive driving.
*55 is a very good resource to report those things to our public safety partners. Those two things save a lot of lives: wear your seat belt, slow down, report aggressive driving, and move over and give someone some space.
Everybody is in a hurry. I know everybody wants to get there and get to the games, but we have to get there first before we get back, and we really encourage folks to slow down and take their time.
