What is Ebola?
Ebola virus disease (also known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever) is a rare and deadly disease. The disease is native to several African countries and is caused by infection with one of the ebolaviruses (Ebola, Sudan, Bundibugyo, or Taï Forest virus). It is spread by direct contact with a sick person’s blood or body fluids. It is also spread by contact with contaminated objects or infected animals.
Symptoms include fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, sore throat, and weakness, followed by diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain. Skin rash, red eyes, and internal and external bleeding may be seen in some patients.
Who is at risk?
Travelers could be infected if they come into contact with blood or body fluids from someone who is sick or has died from Ebola, sick wildlife, or meat from an infected animal. Health care providers caring for Ebola patients and family and friends in close contact with an ill person are at highest risk because they may come into contact with blood or body fluids.
What can travelers do to prevent Ebola?
There is no vaccine or specific treatment for Ebola, and many people who get the disease die. Therefore, it is important to take steps to prevent Ebola.
- Avoid nonessential travel to Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.
- If you must travel, please make sure to do the following:
- Practice careful hygiene. Avoid contact with blood and body fluids.
- Do not handle items that may have come in contact with an infected person’s blood or body fluids.
- Avoid funeral or burial rituals that require handling the body of someone who has died from Ebola.
- Avoid contact with animals or with raw meat.
- Avoid hospitals where Ebola patients are being treated. The US Embassy or consulate is often able to provide advice on facilities that are suitable for your needs. The US Embassy in Monrovia can be reached at +(231) 77-677-7000.
- Seek medical care immediately if you develop fever, headache, achiness, sore throat, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, rash, or red eyes.
- Limit your contact with other people when you travel to the doctor. Do not travel anywhere else.
- Pay attention to your health after you return.
- Monitor your health for 10 days if you were in an area with an Ebola outbreak but were not in contact with blood or body fluids, items that have come in contact with blood or body fluids, animals or raw meat, or hospitals where Ebola patients are being treated.
- Monitor your health for 21 days if you think you might have been exposed to Ebola.
- Seek medical care immediately if you develop fever, headache, achiness, sore throat, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, rash, or red eyes.
- Tell the doctor about your recent travel and your symptoms before you go to the office or emergency room. Advance notice will help the doctor care for you and protect other people who may be in the office.
Special Recommendation for Health Care Workers
Health care workers who may be exposed to people with the disease should follow these steps:
- Wear protective clothing, including masks, gloves, gowns, and eye protection.
- Practice proper infection control and sterilization measures. For more information, see “Infection Control for Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers in the African Health Care Setting.”
- Isolate Ebola patients from unprotected people.
- Avoid direct contact with the bodies of people who have died from Ebola.
- Notify health officials if you have been exposed to someone with Ebola.
Traveler Information
- CDC Ebola factsheet
- CDC Ebola website
- People Working and Living Abroad
- US Embassy Security Message: Update on Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever
- Health Information for Travelers to Liberia
Clinician Information
- CDC Ebola website
- Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers in CDC Health Information for International Travelers 2014—“Yellow Book”
- Health Information for Travelers to Liberia
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