There a number of things you should know when you are planning your gorilla safari in Rwanda and one of them is yellow fever vaccination. Rwanda is Yellow Fever free country at the moment, and considering the current active outbreak of Yellow Fever in Angola and the documenting of imported cases in some countries, the Rwandan Ministry of Health is implementing strategies to prevent the import of Yellow Fever cases and therefore protect the health of residents and wonderful visitors.
In Rwanda, Center for Disease Control does not recommend yellow fever vaccine for most travelers. However, in case you consider staying longer, you are likely to be heavily exposed to mosquitoes, which may be convincing enough for you to have the vaccine.
Country entry requirement: The government of Rwanda requires proof of yellow fever vaccination if travelling from a country with risk of yellow fever or a country with an active yellow fever outbreak but in case you are travelling from a country that does not have a yellow fever background the card is not so strict
All residents travelling to Yellow Fever endemic countries1 should be vaccinated at least 10 days before travelling. Yellow fever endemic countries include:
Angola, Argentina, Benin, Bolivia Plurinational, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, French Guiana, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sudan, Suriname, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Venezuela.
EXEMPTED
Just in case you would love to get a waiver of the vaccination certification and enter Rwanda; there two reasonable and general ways to acquire and exemption.
The first is to go to a registered provider of a yellow fever vaccine and have them write an exemption on the International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis [ICVP] card {yellow card}.
The other is to have your physician write the exemption on practice letterhead.