CDC Issues New Travel Advisory for Rwanda due to Ebola-Like Virus

The federal agency on Oct. 7 increased its travel level advisory to Level 3 for the African country.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta on April 23, 2020. (Tami Chappell/AFP via Getty Images

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel warning to Rwanda because of an outbreak of Marburg virus, an Ebola-like disease, in recent weeks.

On Oct. 7, the CDC increased its travel level advisory to Level 3, urging people to reconsider nonessential travel. The advisory applies to all of Rwanda, according to the CDC, because infections of Marburg have been confirmed in multiple areas across the African country.

For people who “must” travel to Rwanda, the CDC advises travelers to “avoid contact with sick people who have symptoms, such as fever, muscle pain, and rash,” noting that people should also “avoid traditional healers” and “avoid contact with blood and other body fluids.”

“Avoid visiting healthcare facilities in the outbreak area for nonurgent medical care or for nonmedical reasons,” the agency stated. “Avoid contact with dead bodies or items that have been in contact with dead bodies, participating in funeral or burial rituals, or attending a funeral or burial.”

Days before that, the agency issued its “Level 2” travel notice for Rwanda, urging enhanced precautions for those traveling to the country.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in a statement on Oct. 7, said it will direct the CDC to start screening travelers entering the United States who have been in Rwanda in the past 21 days. That effort will start on Oct. 14, according to the agency.

“This screening aims to reduce the risk of importation of Marburg cases into the United States and the spread within U.S. communities,” the agency stated.

The Rwandan Health Ministry stated that it has also been screening departing travelers for the virus, according to a post it made on X, formerly known as Twitter, earlier in October.

Rwanda’s first outbreak of the Ebola-like disease was detected in late September, with 58 cases and 13 deaths reported since then, as of Oct. 9. Marburg has a fatality rate as high as 88 percent, officials say. But the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that the disease has an average fatality rate of about 50 percent.

It is transmitted to humans by fruit bats and then spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals.

It was first identified in Marburg, Germany, and Belgrade, Serbia, in 1967, after laboratory work with African green monkeys from Uganda led to human infections. Since then, there have been outbreaks and sporadic cases in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda, according to the WHO.

Rwanda has begun administering vaccine doses against the virus, prioritizing those most at risk, most exposed health care workers, and the close contacts of the confirmed cases.

In the United States, there are no approved vaccines or treatments for Marburg, while Rwanda’s health minister has said that there are a number of promising candidates that could begin trials soon. These include vaccine candidates developed by nonprofit organizations including the Sabin Vaccine Institute, which has said that it is working with Rwandan officials on the outbreak, as well as the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.

The team that developed the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at Oxford University began a trial of its Marburg candidate this summer in the UK, using similar technology.

Officials in Rwanda are also monitoring about 300 contacts of known cases. Roughly 70 percent of confirmed cases are health care workers from two health facilities in the capital, Kigali, although cases have been reported from seven of the country’s 30 districts.

As well as spreading in health care facilities, the disease can also spread at funerals of those killed by the disease, which involve close physical contact with the deceased in some cultures as they are prepared for burial, said Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia.

Reuters contributed to this report.