Ebola: Everything travellers need to know after outbreak spreads to Uganda

As the latest Ebola outbreak spreads across African frontiers, this is the essential information about the virus and its consequences

Between December 2013 and June 2016, 11,325 people died and 17,000 more fell seriously ill as a result of an outbreak of Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The epidemic sparked fears among many travellers – often baseless. When two missionaries died in Madrid after contracting Ebola in west Africa, some prospective visitors to Spain cancelled their plans.

Now, Ebola virus has reappeared in central Africa. These are the key questions and answers for travellers.

A severe viral haemorrhagic illness. It is transmitted initially from wild animals – notably fruit bats – to people. Symptoms include some or all of fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. As Ebola takes hold, it leads to vomiting and diarrhoea, with impaired kidney and liver function, as well as internal and external bleeding.

There is no treatment other than rehydration, but in the 2013-2016 outbreak 60 per cent of victims survived.

Ebola first appeared in 1976 in simultaneous outbreaks: one in what is now South Sudan, and the other in a village near the Ebola River in Democratic Congo, from which the disease takes its name.

The incubation period from infection to onset of symptoms is between two days and three weeks. A person infected with Ebola cannot spread the disease until they develop symptoms.

Through human-to-human transmission via direct contact through mucous membranes or broken skin with bodily fluids of a person who is ill with, or has died from, Ebola.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says: “Burial ceremonies that involve direct contact with the body of the deceased can also contribute in the transmission of Ebola.”

Ebola can also be spread by objects contaminated by infected body fluids, such as medical equipment – “particularly in health care settings that do not have, or do not adhere, to strict appropriate infection control procedures,” says the NHS.

Vaccines are being developed and initial results appear positive. The WHO says: “A range of blood, immunological and drug therapies are under development.”

But the world is a long way from having an Ebola vaccine widely available for prospective travellers.

On 1 August 2018, the government of Democratic Congo confirmed an outbreak in North Kivu province. Since then around 1,500 people have died in Democratic Congo. Ebola is now spreading across borders into countries that receive more tourists, including Uganda, where a five-year-old boy tested positive for Ebola this week. On 11 June 2019 the WHO confirmed the outbreak in Kasese District, which is close to the border of Democratic Congo.

Rwanda hasn’t had a recorded outbreak yet, but the government has put in place screening procedures for Ebola at borders and airports.

“Extremely low.” That is the advice from the NHS travel health organisation Fitfortravel.

However, it adds: “Travellers returning from tropical countries should always seek rapid medical attention if they develop flu-like symptoms (such as fever, headache, diarrhoea or general malaise) within three weeks after return, and be reminded to mention to their health care provider that they have recently travelled.”

If you are booked on, say, an adventure trip to Uganda or Rwanda, provided by a UK tour operator, and the Foreign Office were to warn against all but essential travel, then you could claim a full refund.

But at present the extremely low risk to British travellers makes such a move unlikely.

Airlines and tour operators aim to transport you safely and provide the good holiday experience you have booked. As a result, their refrain is “normal conditions apply”. In other words, you won’t be able to cancel, postpone or re-route your trip without losing some or all of your cash.

Travel insurance is unlikely to offer any recompense as long as there is no official warning against travel.