Canada's Public Health Agency is drawing renewed attention to a broad slate of international health risks, updating its travel health notices to reflect outbreaks and disease activity across multiple regions. These notices, published on Travel.gc.ca, outline potential health threats to Canadian travellers and advise on practical steps to reduce the chances of getting sick while abroad. Once posted, the notices remain in effect until they are removed from the federal website, underscoring that many of the highlighted risks are ongoing rather than short-lived.
The system relies on four advisory levels that mirror escalating degrees of concern: Level 1 urges travellers to practise general health precautions, Level 2 recommends enhanced measures due to increased risk, Level 3 advises against non-essential travel, and Level 4 calls for avoiding all travel to a destination. Level 1 notices are designed as a reminder that common-sense steps can significantly cut risk, emphasizing measures such as avoiding insect bites, practising proper hand hygiene and staying up to date on recommended vaccinations. Level 2 notices, by contrast, flag situations where risk is higher for all travellers or for particular groups, and can involve recommendations for personal protective equipment, delaying travel until risk subsides, obtaining additional vaccinations for some travellers and steering clear of higher-risk activities.
Among the most serious current notices is a Level 3 advisory related to Ebola disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where travellers are urged to avoid non-essential trips because of the severity of the outbreak. A separate notice for Ebola disease in Uganda is set at Level 2, reflecting an elevated risk that warrants enhanced precautions but stops short of advising most Canadians to cancel their plans. Both countries are singled out for Ebola activity, and the notices are meant to guide travellers who may still have compelling reasons to go, from humanitarian work to visiting close family.
Other infectious diseases feature prominently in the latest slate of notices, particularly those spread by mosquitoes and other insect vectors. A Level 1 dengue notice covers a wide swath of destinations, including Cambodia, Cuba, Guyana, Malaysia, the Maldives, New Caledonia, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Tonga, Vanuatu and Vietnam, where travellers are reminded to take standard steps to avoid bites and protect themselves outdoors. A Level 2 notice for chikungunya includes Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, French Guiana, Mauritius, Mayotte and Suriname, reflecting a higher level of concern that may call for stricter bite-prevention measures and, for some travellers, reconsidering certain activities. There is also a Level 2 notice for Oropouche virus disease in the Americas focused on Cuba, and a Level 2 mpox notice for Madagascar, highlighting that health risks are not confined to a single region or type of disease.
Several Level 1 notices address vaccine-preventable illnesses that remain endemic or have resurged in parts of the world. Yellow fever in the Americas is the subject of a Level 1 notice covering Bolivia, Colombia and Venezuela, paired with advice that travellers review vaccine recommendations well in advance of departure. Avian influenza prompts another Level 1 notice for Cambodia and China, acknowledging continued concern about animal-to-human transmission in some settings. Extensively drug-resistant typhoid in Pakistan is also flagged at Level 1, a reminder that even familiar diseases can pose new challenges when standard treatments are less effective.
Measles is treated as a global concern in the current notices, with a Level 1 advisory that explicitly applies to all countries. The list of destinations attached to this notice spans virtually the entire world, from Afghanistan and Albania to the United States, Uruguay and Zimbabwe, reflecting the highly contagious nature of measles and the ease with which it can spread when vaccination coverage dips. The emphasis in this notice is on ensuring travellers are up to date on routine immunizations before leaving Canada, since exposure can occur in airports, on planes or in communities that have experienced recent outbreaks, even if the traveller is visiting for a short stay.
Federal officials stress that travel health notices are meant to work alongside the broader Travel Advice and Advisories pages for each country, which combine health information with guidance on safety, security, local laws, customs and entry requirements. Travellers are encouraged to consult these pages at least twice—once during the planning phase and again shortly before departure—because conditions can change between the time a trip is booked and the day of travel, whether due to new outbreaks, evolving security situations or shifts in local public health measures. The notices are one of several tools the Public Health Agency of Canada uses to help Canadians prepare, complementing disease-specific information and health checklists that are available through federal channels.
For Canadians weighing upcoming trips, the mix of Level 1 and Level 2 notices across dozens of destinations illustrates the importance of tailoring preparations to the specific health landscape of each country. A leisure trip to a dengue-affected island, for example, may require careful planning around insect protection and vaccination status, while a visit to a country with mpox or chikungunya activity may prompt a closer look at planned activities and accommodations. Those with higher personal risk—such as pregnant travellers, people visiting friends and relatives in affected communities or campers spending extensive time outdoors—may need to go beyond routine precautions to align with the enhanced measures described in Level 2 notices.