{"id":685003,"date":"2026-05-21T21:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T21:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/685003\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T21:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T21:59:13","slug":"should-canada-consider-travel-bans-like-u-s-is-doing-amid-ebola-outbreak-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/685003\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Canada consider travel bans like U.S. is doing amid Ebola outbreak? – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

After U.S. travel restrictions stemming from the Ebola<\/a> outbreak forced a commercial flight to divert to Montreal while carrying a passenger from one of the countries facing those new rules, Canadians may be wondering whether Canada should impose its own travel restrictions.<\/p>\n

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The World Health Organization<\/a> (WHO) declared the Ebola\u00a0disease outbreak caused by a rare virus in Congo and Uganda a\u00a0public health emergency of international concern on Sunday<\/a>, with at least 139 suspected deaths and more than 600 suspected cases.<\/p>\n

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said on Wednesday<\/a> that \u201cwe expect those numbers to keep increasing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security imposed a U.S. entry ban<\/a> on foreign travelers who have been in Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan in the past 21 days \u201ceffective immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cAt this time, CDC assesses the immediate risk to the general U.S. public as low, but we will continue to evaluate the evolving situation and may adjust public health measures as additional information becomes available,\u201d a statement from the CDC reads.<\/p>\n

Currently, the Canadian government advises Canadians to avoid all travel to Ituri and North Kivu provinces, citing safety and security concerns.<\/p>\n

However, the government has issued a level two travel notice for Congo<\/a>, which is set to indicate<\/a> \u201can increased risk to travellers or certain groups of travellers (for example, pregnant women, campers, people visiting friends and relatives) and reminds them to practice enhanced health precautions.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is currently no travel notices surrounding South Sudan and Uganda in relation to Ebola outbreaks.<\/p>\n

The notice advises Canadians to \u201cpractice enhanced health precautions\u201d such as:<\/p>\n

The use of personal protective equipmentDelaying travel until risk is lowerAdditional recommended vaccinations for some groupsAvoiding higher-risk activities<\/p>\n

Global News reached out to infectious disease experts to ask whether travel bans can be effective and whether Canada should follow suit.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHealth Matters: Global risk of Ebola outbreak spreading remains low, WHO says\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Dr. Gerald Evans, a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Queen\u2019s University, believes that Canadian travel restrictions are not necessary.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe know that travel restrictions don\u2019t work when it comes to controlling the spread of something like a viral hemorrhagic fever virus like Ebola is,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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This is a sentiment that Dr. Isaac Bogoch, infectious disease specialist at the Toronto General Hospital also agrees with.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose aren\u2019t very effective measures in keeping infectious diseases out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In comparison to the travel restrictions that came from the COVID-19 pandemic, Bogoch\u00a0said that the spread of the two illnesses is vastly different.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith COVID, it has got a short incubation period and there\u2019s transmission of the virus before people have overt symptoms, so it\u2019s very transmissible, it\u2019s hard to control,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we did close our borders [\u2026] a lot of that was performative. It didn\u2019t really impact the importation of COVID. We had travel bans for particular countries and that also didn\u2019t wasn\u2019t very effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evans also stated that the recent hantavirus exposures have left people cautious that another potential pandemic could occur.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe hantavirus issue that we\u2019ve been facing recently with the cruise ship and now this Ebola outbreak in East Africa, with almost certainty, I can see these are not going to become a pandemic. They\u2019re spread in a very different way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cCOVID is a respiratory virus, so it was relatively easy to transmit between people, much like the common cold is or influenza and RSV. It\u2019s a very different picture with these viruses [Ebola and hantavirus], which are transmitted through a different mechanism than COVID was.\u201d<\/p>\n

In comparison to Ebola and hantavirus, Evans stated that the spread of the two illnesses stems \u201conly when you get and the sicker you get that you actually get lots of transmission.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cBy that time, you\u2019ve already identified somebody who\u2019s unwell and maybe tested them and figured out what they had. COVID was trickier,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bogoch also said that with people travelling at rates \u201cnever seen before,\u201d it makes the containment of these illnesses much more difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sad reality is that we\u2019re in an era of unprecedented human mobility at a global level,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can start in one corner of the world and be in just about any other part of the world in 24 hours through commercial means.\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still going to be outbreaks, but we should have systems in place where we\u2019re obviously supportive of low- and middle-income countries so they\u2019re better able to prevent, detect and respond to these [outbreaks],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tHow severe is the Ebola outbreak?\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no approved treatment<\/a> for Ebola disease in Canada. Patients can receive oxygen, intravenous fluids and other drugs in designated treatment sites to help with symptoms, according to the Canadian government<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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While the WHO determined that the outbreak<\/a> constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, it does not meet the criteria of pandemic emergency.<\/p>\n

The outbreak is caused by Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD), a type of Ebola disease. There are no approved vaccines or specific treatments for BVD.<\/p>\n

Most cases are reported in Ituri province, including the Mongwalu, Rwampara, and Bunia health zones. Ituri province borders Uganda, where imported cases linked to this outbreak have been reported.<\/p>\n

Cases have also been reported in Goma, in North Kivu province. In response, border crossings between Goma and neighbouring Rwanda (Goma-Giseny) are closed until further notice due to the outbreak.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After U.S. travel restrictions stemming from the Ebola outbreak forced a commercial flight to divert to Montreal while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,67435,241672,84,3275,16119],"class_list":["post-685003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ebola","tag-hantavirus","tag-health","tag-world","tag-world-health-organization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}