Rwanda is now screening U.S. visitors for Ebola

(Image credit: Allison Shelley/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

On Tuesday, Rwandan Health Minister Dr. Agnes Binagwaho said visitors coming from the U.S. and Spain will now be screened for Ebola upon arrival, ordered to report on their health while they are in the east African nation, and required to fill out a detailed form. Travelers who have been in Spain or the U.S. recently and have a fever will be denied entry to Rwanda.

"It is definitely extra work for us," Bingwaho said. "We have to ensure that all citizens or any other travelers arriving from the above-mentioned countries, including the U.S., have to be screened in an extra careful manner and follow up on them during their stay."

The U.S. and Spain are the two Western nations with Ebola transmissions; Rwanda — about 2,600 miles from the locus of the pandemic in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone — hasn't had any reported cases of Ebola in the recent outbreak. That didn't stop parents at one New Jersey elementary school from forcing the school to keep two Rwandan students from enrolling last week because, as one parent put it, "anybody from that area should just stay there until all this stuff is resolved." Presumably, Rwanda's new precautions are unrelated to the New Jersey incident.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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