Every passenger boarding an international flight to the United States will soon have to sign a statement swearing they haven't set foot in the Democratic Republic of the Congo within the previous 21 days. The new requirement takes effect November 3, and it arrives just days after Nigeria confirmed its first Ebola case in more than a decade, a development that has put health officials across two continents on alert.
The attestation order, issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, requires all passengers boarding a flight bound for the U.S. to sign a statement confirming they have not been present in the DRC in the 21 days before travel, according to the CDC. NBC News reports the order requires all U.S.-bound airline passengers to file digital or paper attestations, and that as of October 23 no Ebola cases tied to this outbreak had turned up in the United States.
The outbreak driving the new rule involves the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which the station reports has killed roughly 4,700 people across Africa. Nigeria became the fifth country to detect the virus since the outbreak was declared, and Kenya has reported nine cases linked to an imported case in recent weeks, according to the WHO Regional Office for Africa.
Nigeria's Imported Case and Contact Tracing
Nigeria has confirmed one imported case of Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease in the Federal Capital Territory, per the WHO Africa office. The patient is a woman with recent travel history to Uganda, and the agency says her symptoms began on October 7 — the BBC says symptoms developed four days after she arrived in Abuja on October 3.
According to the BBC, the Nigerian patient is a 42-year-old Ugandan-born woman who lives in Abuja and is receiving treatment in isolation, showing signs of improvement. Her husband, who accompanied her on the trip to Uganda, is also in isolation but has not developed symptoms, the outlet reports. Nigerian health authorities say 44 contacts have been identified and are being monitored, and the country has activated its incident management system to coordinate the response.
A Possible Link to Kenya's Outbreak
Nigeria's case has drawn attention because of its possible proximity to Kenya's own outbreak. Both the Nigerian and Kenyan patients traveled through Entebbe airport on October 3, the BBC notes, though officials have not established whether the two met or had any other form of contact. Kenya has confirmed nine infections, including one death, with all nine linked to the first patient and no evidence of wider community transmission, per the same BBC report.
The underlying outbreak was confirmed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda in May 2026, according to the World Health Organization, which describes a humanitarian and security backdrop, mobile populations and trade flows. CDC data cited in its own reporting describes the DRC outbreak as the second-largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded, with 5,458 confirmed cases and 2,606 confirmed deaths as of August 21.
Building on Earlier US Restrictions
The new attestation requirement builds on travel restrictions the U.S. introduced earlier in 2026 as Ebola spread from the DRC, according to Business Insider Africa. A CDC order from May barred passengers who had been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo within the prior 21 days from boarding commercial flights to the United States; separately, restrictions involving Uganda and South Sudan applied to certain foreign nationals, per the agency's own order documentation.
Business Insider Africa, citing Reuters' review of a memo describing the new order, reports that the declaration differs from those earlier measures by not relying solely on restrictions targeting people recently in affected countries — instead requiring every U.S.-bound air passenger to affirm their recent travel history. The outlet also reports that U.S. airlines will be responsible for ensuring passengers complete the declaration, and that the CDC was expected to brief major U.S. and international airlines on compliance procedures.
Nigeria's current situation stands in contrast with its history fighting the disease. The country successfully contained a 2014 Ebola outbreak that resulted in 20 confirmed cases and eight deaths, according to the BBC, which also reports Nigeria has since ramped up surveillance at international airports through health screenings, temperature checks, movement tracking and digital health declarations.
