Ebola could affect your travel plans more than you think

South Africa, Kenya, Cape Verde, Seychelles and Mauritius are among the popular destinations that have closed their borders to anyone who was recently in an Ebola affected country.

Travel to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia is extremely unwise of course, and the UK Foreign Office advises against such journeys until the epidemic is over.

But trips to popular African destinations like South Africa, and holiday islands including Cape Verde, the Seychelles and Mauritius can also be affected. All these countries have closed their borders to anyone arriving from the Ebola zone - and to passengers whose passport shows they have passed through those countries in recent weeks. In fact similar restrictions are in place for most countries worldwide, including the popular Caribbean resorts such as Antigua and Jamaica. The period varies, it's 30 days in the case of Cape Verde for example.

Don't travel if these restrictions apply to you. Your travel insurance policy won't be valid, and chances are you'll need to be repatriated at your own expense.

And now, with so much rumour and misinformation swirling around the subject, here's a quick guide to what travellers need to know about Ebola.

First and foremost, as the official World Health Organisation fact sheet confirms, Ebola is a very difficult disease to catch. The virus cannot spread by air or water, and can only be transmitted by physical contact with blood, sweat or other bodily fluids from an infected person or animal. WHO also states that there is very low risk of the disease being contracted during air travel.

Is Ebola spreading? The good news is that Nigeria and Senegal have now been declared Ebola free by WHO. However a worrying sign is that Kenya (which has never had a single case of Ebola, like most African countries) closed a border crossing from Uganda on 10 October following reports of an Ebola-related death there. There is also a confirmed but unrelated outbreak of a different version of the virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Tourism to parts of Africa unaffected by Ebola is certainly being hit by fear of the epidemic. According to the Tourism Business Council of South Africa, reported in the Daily Telegraph on 20 October, there is "alarm in the market" because people misunderstand how the virus spreads and where the affected countries are. In fact Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are closer to London than to South Africa.

It's essential to remember that if you cancel a holiday because of misplaced fears about Ebola, your travel insurance company won't consider your claim valid.