World Cup organizers expect 300,000 foreigners will visit South Africa for the month-long soccer tournament. Drs. Khan and Brownstein will focus on countries participating in the tournament plus cities around the world where air travel to South Africa is greatest during the month of June. Those cities are: London, England; Harare, Windhoek, Lusaka, Luanda, Dubai, Mauritius, Amsterdam, New York, Singapore, Lagos, Sydney and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

FIFA, soccer's international organizing committee, notes that the largest number of foreign ticket holders will come from the United States. More than 130,000 of the 2.8 million tickets were purchased by U.S. residents. England was second, followed by Australia, Mexico, Germany and Brazil.

The researchers will monitor both what travelers might bring into South Africa - which could be anything from mumps from England or Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease from Singapore -- and what they take home with them, such as Rift Valley Fever from South Africa. For example, a measles outbreak at the 1991 Special Olympics in Minneapolis- St. Paul was triggered by an athlete from Argentina, where there was a measles epidemic.

Source: St. Michael's Hospital