Mexico has issued an Ebola-based travel advisory due to an active Ebola outbreak in Central Africa that the World Health Organization has classified as an international emergency. 

While the advisory is meant especially for people traveling to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, where the outbreak has been most severe, the Health Ministry (SSA) is urging all travelers to exercise epidemiological vigilance and caution.

“Given that this is an event with a risk of international spread, it is important to consider that travelers could be exposed not only to potentially sick people, but also to other health risks present in the affected areas,” the SSA said. 

While authorities have stressed that the risk in Mexico is low and there are no confirmed cases to date in this country, individual risk depends on recent history of travel, length of stay or exposure in areas with active transmission and contact with sick people or contaminated materials.

The Bundibugyo Ebola variant of the virus is deadly. No specific vaccine or approved treatment exists for the disease it causes. 

The SSA has said that transmission occurs through direct contact with blood, secretions, or contaminated objects, not by air like Covid 19 or influenza. The incubation period varies between two and 21 days and timely identification and isolation of symptomatic individuals significantly reduces the risk of transmission.

Furthermore, the SSA has warned travelers that if they experience fever, severe weakness, headache, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and/or unexplained bleeding within 21 days of their return, they should avoid self-medication, proceed to immediate isolation and inform health authorities via telephone of their travel history.

Health authorities have stressed that due to international mobility and global air connectivity, they maintain epidemiological surveillance for emerging diseases of international concern.

Just last week, Mexico issued a preventive hantavirus alert following the confirmation of a hantavirus outbreak on May 2 onboard an international cruise ship sailing the South Atlantic Ocean.  

As with Ebola, hantavirus has no approved antiviral treatment.

Mexico News Daily