Dar es Salaam — Tanzania has expanded traveller health checks after Kenya reported seven confirmed cases of Bundibugyo Ebola virus disease, including one death, in an outbreak linked to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Ministry of Health’s Travel Advisory No. 18, issued October 17, requires every incoming traveller to complete an online Traveller Health Surveillance Form before departure. It covers air, land and sea arrivals and expands the earlier regime focused on people arriving from, or transiting through, the DRC and Uganda.
It requires temperature and other health screening at all points of entry. People with signs compatible with Ebola or another infectious disease are to be managed under national entry-and-exit screening procedures, while travellers assessed as high risk can be followed for 21 days through automated messages or other contact.
The advisory instructs travellers and transport operators to observe infection-prevention measures, and says conveyances or cargo linked to a suspected case will be decontaminated. It directs people with symptoms to a health facility, a point of entry or the toll-free number 199.
The government said the step followed the continuing outbreak in the DRC and a recent Kenyan case involving a person who had travelled from there. The advisory does not report a confirmed Ebola case in Tanzania.
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In Kenya, the Health Ministry said on October 17 that four newly confirmed cases brought the total to seven, including one death. It said all four new patients had already been quarantined and that there was “no evidence of community transmission” in the country.
Kenya’s first patient was a Kenyan man who had lived in the DRC, travelled through Uganda and arrived in Nairobi on October 3, according to the World Health Organisation. He was isolated after reaching the hospital, tested positive and died on October 5; later cases were identified among close contacts under quarantine.
The regional burden remains concentrated in the DRC. WHO’s latest weekly situation report recorded 9,066 confirmed cases and 4,381 deaths across 65 health zones as of October 11, making it the largest recorded outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo species.
Uganda declared its outbreak over on August 27 after 42 days without a new confirmed case, but WHO said neighbouring countries remained exposed to importations through cross-border travel and trade.
In August, WHO assessed risk as high for countries sharing a land border with the DRC, including Tanzania, while assessing the wider African regional and global risks as low.
Bundibugyo Ebola is a severe disease spread through direct contact with the blood or body fluids of someone who is ill or has died, or with contaminated materials. It is not airborne, and people do not transmit it before symptoms begin; symptoms can emerge two to 21 days after infection, WHO says.
There is no approved vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo species, although early supportive care can improve survival. This is why the response centres on rapid identification, isolation, contact tracing, infection control and safe burials.
The measures do not amount to a border closure. WHO advises against suspending flights or water routes, denying entry or restricting general travel and trade; it instead recommends screening, entry-point readiness and information-sharing.
Tanzania had already conducted preparedness exercises with Uganda and Burundi at the Mutukula and Kabanga-Kobero crossings in May. The new advisory extends the country’s traveller-health requirements as regional authorities seek to detect imported cases early.
