Canada's Ebola quarantine is keeping aid workers home as outbreak accelerates
The mandatory 21-day quarantine for people returning from the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan expires Aug. 29 — and humanitarian workers say it's costing lives.
The day's top stories, food & events — every morning at 7. Unsubscribe anytime.
Canada's three-week quarantine for travellers returning from Ebola-affected countries has forced at least 11 Canadian aid workers to cancel assignments with Doctors Without Borders, and many more have cut deployments short. The measure expires Aug. 29, and humanitarian organizations are urging the government to reverse it before the deadline.
Lily-Madeleine Seguin, a public health promotion adviser with Oxfam, was set to deploy to the Democratic Republic of Congo in late May when Ottawa announced the quarantine. She had her final approvals and updated vaccines. She never went — there wasn't enough time to quarantine between her return and a sabbatical she had already scheduled. "To me, we're not stepping up in the way that we should be as a country," Seguin said. "Changing the quarantine regulations is a low-stakes way of being able to do it."
Mylene Ratelle, hired as a health promotion manager at Doctors Without Borders, had to leave the DRC early to quarantine before the fall semester started, trading contact tracing for "pandemic-era baking" at home in Montreal.
The World Health Organization calls this the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history, on track to be the deadliest. More than 2,500 people have died out of more than 5,000 infections. Adam Houston, medical policy adviser at MSF Canada, said the quarantine has rippled beyond the Ebola response, affecting Canadian participation in other humanitarian efforts across the conflict-ridden region.
When the measures were announced in May, the FIFA World Cup was cited as a key reason — Canada needed to align with co-hosts the U.S. and Mexico. The government said it was reviewing the restrictions and would announce a decision on next steps before Aug. 29.
Will Canada lift or extend the 21-day quarantine before Aug. 29?
How many Canadian aid workers total have cancelled or shortened deployments because of the quarantine?
We'll update this story as answers emerge.
By the numbers
When does Canada's mandatory quarantine for travellers from Ebola-affected countries expire?
The quarantine expires on August 29, 2026.
How many Canadian aid workers with Doctors Without Borders cancelled assignments due to the quarantine?
At least 11 Canadian aid workers cancelled assignments with Doctors Without Borders because of the mandatory quarantine.
What are the death and infection numbers for this Ebola outbreak?
More than 2,500 people have died out of more than 5,000 infections in what the World Health Organization calls the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history.
