Uganda Travel Update; Yellow Fever Certificate Mandatory Entry Requirement to Uganda

Visitors to Uganda for Uganda safaris must possess and present a yellow fever vaccination certificate or receive the shot at Entebbe airport and face isolation for at least 10 days effective immediately! According to the Health ministry spokesperson Rukia Nakamatte, the directive is part of a World Health Organisation recommendation to prevent the spread of the disease which has already claimed six lives in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes and can kill from 10 to 14 days.

Uganda tourism had a difficult year – 2015 and all the election “madness” has not made it easier. The obstruction of social media was disappointing to the very few tourists the country had and the way the government has handled the election aftermath has painted a gloomy picture about the country.

Some circles have debated that the move to make a yellow fever vaccination certificate a requirement for entry is an overreaction by the Ministry of Health and that it is insensitive for the ministry not to consult some key stakeholders like the tour operators before reaching such a decision that the directive be implemented with immediate effect!

Yellow fever vaccination requires 10 days to be effective, and given the time it will take to get this information into the mainstream travel media and across travel agencies, tour operators and the general public, the full extent of the potential downside becomes apparent.

If this is implemented overnight as stated, it will mean that maybe hundreds if not thousands of visitors planning to fly to Uganda over the next coming weeks, may have to be vaccinated, not an appealing prospect given the perception visitors have about Uganda’s health facilities, or as threatened, ‘put in an isolation unit‘.

At least 29 countries have been flagged as high-risk countries within Africa and 13 within south and Central America. Some of the African countries named include Angola, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, DRC, Ethiopia, Benin, Chad, South Sudan and Sudan.

 

Other countries in Central and South America include; Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago among others.

Intending visitors to Uganda (especially visiting Bwindi Forest National Park) are therefore advised to immediately seek medical advice and undergo inoculation, but should remember that the shot will only be effective after ten days. This gap, due to logistics and perhaps the lack of vaccine or a nearby recognized vaccination center, may widen this time frame to as much as several weeks, during which passengers disembarking in Uganda will face the stark reality of either being vaccinated or put into isolation.

Whether the government employed common sense or tempered such a hasty decision in the broader interest of the country is still a topic of debate especially among the Uganda tourism and travel circles.