US issues travel ban amid massive Ebola outbreak that has killed 100: Here's all about it

In response to a quickly spreading Ebola outbreak, the Trump administration has imposed a US entry ban on foreign travellers who have been to three African countries.

People who have been to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the past 21 days, are not allowed entry into the United States, as per an order issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The countries are the centre of an ongoing outbreak of the Ebola virus that is believed to have killed at least 100 people. The ban doesn't apply to US citizens or permanent residents and will remain in place for 30 days.

The order comes after an international Christian aid group confirmed one of its members, an American doctor working in the outbreak zone, is among those confirmed to have an Ebola infection. The organisation, Serge, said that Peter Stafford, a physician who had been working at a hospital in Bunia since 2023, in northeastern DRC, tested positive for the Bundibugyo ebolavirus variant. Two other doctors working for the charity, along with Stafford's wife were also exposed to infected patients.



As of now, Stafford, along with his family and four children, is being relocated to Germany for treatment. Other doctors who were working for the charity at Nyankude Hospital have also been transferred there for observation, though all of them are asymptomatic.

In an order signed by acting CDC head Jay Bhattacharya, the agency said the ban aims to minimise the potential for spillover into the US and to buy officials some time to assess the threat of the outbreak, which was declared a global health emergency by the WHO on Sunday.

The U.S. will also step up health screening, and the CDC will try to contact trace anyone who may have entered the country in recent weeks who could have had any exposure to Ebola.

The outbreak appears to be driven by the Bundibugyo virus, one of several viruses that can cause Ebola. The most notable symptom is viral hemorrhagic fever, which can cause life-threatening internal bleeding. The mortality rate for Bundibugyo is 25 per cent to 50 per cent, according to the CDC, and there is no vaccine or specific therapy for the disease.