Key points
- WHO advises seeking medical attention on return if ill in the weeks after travel — particularly with fever, persistent diarrhoea, vomiting, jaundice or skin disease.
- Seek care immediately, not at a regularly scheduled consultation, and tell the clinician about travel history, vaccines and malaria prophylaxis taken.
- This page lists the symptoms WHO names. It does not diagnose, and it does not tell any individual what their symptoms mean.
- For current outbreaks affecting a region, see the Outbreak Snapshots Directory on this site. No case counts are copied into this page.
Direct answer: After you land, watch for illness in the weeks after travel. WHO advises seeking medical attention on return if you are ill in the weeks after you return home — particularly with fever, persistent diarrhoea, vomiting, jaundice, urinary disorders, skin disease or anogenital infection — and seeking care immediately, not at a regularly scheduled consultation. Tell the clinician about your travel history, including vaccines and malaria prophylaxis taken. This page lists the symptoms WHO names. It does not diagnose, and it does not tell any individual what their symptoms mean.
The symptoms WHO names
WHO’s travel-and-health guidance, opened and verified on 7 November 2026, says travellers should seek medical attention on their return home if they are ill in the weeks after they return home, particularly with fever, persistent diarrhoea, vomiting, jaundice, urinary disorders, skin disease or anogenital infection; if they received treatment for malaria while travelling; if they may have been exposed during travel to an infectious disease, including sexually transmitted infections, even if they have no symptoms; or if they have a previous health condition that gets worse. In these cases travellers should seek medical care immediately and not wait for a regularly scheduled consultation. That list is the whole content of this page’s symptom section: it is WHO’s list, paraphrased, and nothing has been added to it. No symptom checker, no scoring, no “if you have this, it is that” — an awareness page that tried to do that would be practising medicine, and this site does not.
Why the weeks after matter
Some infections appear days after travel, and some weeks later. That is why the window WHO names is “in the weeks after” rather than “on arrival”. A fever that starts a fortnight after landing is still a post-travel illness, and the travel history is still the piece of information that changes what a clinician looks for. The same applies to an exposure with no symptoms: WHO lists possible exposure to an infectious disease during travel, even without symptoms, as a reason to seek medical attention. The point is not to alarm — most travellers return well — but to close the loop that the before-you-fly and in-transit guides open: preparation before, reporting during, and attention after.
What to tell the clinician
Provide health personnel with information on travel history, including vaccines and malaria prophylaxis taken before travel — WHO says that can be helpful. In practice that means where you went, when, what you did, and what you took, plus the documents you carried: the insurance certificate, the vaccine records, and any treatment received while travelling, including treatment for malaria. If you were ill during the trip, say so, and say what happened — whether you reported it to cabin crew or airport staff, and what care you received. A clinician who knows the itinerary can check it against the current outbreak picture; a clinician who does not know you travelled cannot.
Outbreaks, and where the current picture lives
For the current outbreaks affecting a region, this page links to the Outbreak Snapshots Directory on this site rather than repeating anything. The directory carries hand-checked dated entries and the official links, and the outbreak guides carry dated snapshots — the Ebola (Bundibugyo) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, cholera, dengue, measles, mpox and bird flu. No case counts are copied into this page: the site runs no live case-count tracker, and figures are re-checked by a person on a schedule — weekly while a public health emergency is active, monthly for cholera, dengue, measles and mpox. As of 7 November 2026, the CDC Travel Health Notices list includes a Level 4 notice for Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease in Ituri and Nord-Kivu provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a Level 2 notice for yellow fever in Colombia, and a Level 1 notice for Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease in Kenya. Those notices change; check the CDC page for the current list.
Frequently asked questions
How long after travel should I watch for symptoms?
WHO advises seeking medical attention if ill in the weeks after returning home. Some infections appear days after travel, some weeks later. If you are ill in the weeks after travel, seek care and mention the trip.
What should I tell the clinician?
Your travel history, including where you went, when, and what vaccines and malaria prophylaxis you took. WHO says providing that information can be helpful.
Does this page give a diagnosis?
No. It lists the symptoms WHO names as reasons to seek care. What any individual's symptoms mean is a question for a clinician, not for this site.