Argieffoto (September 2018) (Photo: AP Photo/Al-hadji Kudra Maliro, File)
The US State Department strongly warned Americans on Tuesday not to travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), South Sudan or Uganda amid growing concerns about a deadly Ebola outbreak.
The department assigned the three Central African countries its highest travel advisory level – “Level 4: Do not travel” – and also warned citizens to “reconsider” travel to neighboring Rwanda.
The announcement comes a day after US health authorities announced that travelers from areas affected by the outbreak would be more rigorously screened at airports for possible contamination. Certain visa processing has also been temporarily suspended.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the risk to the US itself remains low, but that work is underway to evacuate an American doctor who contracted the virus, as well as six other persons who must be monitored, from the DRC.
German officials said on Tuesday they were ready to receive the ailing doctor.
According to the CDC, people who do not have US passports and have traveled to Uganda, the DRC or South Sudan in the past 21 days will be restricted from entering the United States.
The CDC also said it was stepping up efforts to assist the DRC with technical experts. There is still no proven vaccine or treatment for the Ebola strain causing the latest outbreak.
US officials, meanwhile, are dodging questions about how cuts to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) may have hampered monitoring efforts and may continue to hamper the response.
The CDC stressed it was working with international partners, while the State Department said it was making $13 million in aid available.
Pres. Donald Trump said he was “concerned” about the outbreak, but that he understood it was “currently limited to Africa”.
In the past half century, it is estimated that around 15,000 people have died from different strains of the virus. The virus can have a fatality rate of up to 90%.