What the holiday health statistics really tell us
Accidents happen. Things go wrong. Mother Nature does what she likes, and illness has never once checked your travel itinerary before turning up uninvited. We all know this, yet the moment we board a plane or step onto a sun-warmed deck, we somehow convince ourselves that nothing truly bad could happen. Not to us. Not on holiday.
The truth, of course, is a little more complicated than that.
As we move through the summer of 2026, the world has largely left behind the sweeping travel restrictions of the early decade. But the risks have not disappeared. They have simply returned to their older, quieter, and often more unpredictable selves.
The stories making headlines right now
The news stopping many a traveller mid-scroll right now comes from both the high seas and Central Africa, serving as a stark reminder of how rapidly the global health landscape can shift.
The Ebola outbreak in DRC and Uganda: what UK travellers need to know
On 17 May 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared a new Ebola outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Its most serious designation short of a full pandemic alert and only the eighth time it has been used since 2005. Centred primarily in the Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the situation has rapidly escalated.
As of 2 June 2026, the ECDC reports 344 confirmed cases and 60 confirmed deaths in DRC, with a further 116 suspected cases still under investigation. Uganda has reported 15 confirmed cases, the majority in Kampala, including one death.
Unlike more common historical outbreaks, this emergency is driven by the rare Bundibugyo strain, for which there is currently no licensed vaccine and no approved treatment. The existing Ebola vaccine was developed for the more common Zaire strain and is not effective here. The spread has been complicated by conflict, population displacement, and cross-border movement in one of the world’s most logistically challenging regions, though the FCDO has updated its travel advice and the risk to British holidaymakers heading to mainstream destinations remains very low.
The MV Hondius Hantavirus outbreak
Simultaneously, in the South Atlantic, the Dutch-flagged expedition cruise ship MV Hondius has been linked to a severe outbreak of Andes Hantavirus. As of 26 May 2026, the ECDC reports thirteen cases in total, eleven confirmed and two probable, with three deaths. The risk has hit close to home for British travellers, with two UK passengers confirmed as infected and a third suspected case involving a passenger who disembarked on the incredibly remote island of Tristan da Cunha.
Whether it is a fast-moving regional emergency or an isolated outbreak on a remote cruise liner, these events prove that pathogens have absolutely no interest in your holiday plans. What is notable here, however, is the speed of the response. Organisations like the UK Health Security Agency and the Africa CDC are operating with unprecedented coordination to track, isolate, and contain these threats before they can expand further.
The threats that are far more likely to affect your summer holiday
Here is where it gets a little closer to home. While the headlines focus on the extraordinary, there are several quieter health stories that are considerably more relevant to the average British holidaymaker this summer.
Measles is perhaps the most pressing, and it is not just a problem abroad. Between 1 January and 25 May 2026, there have been 630 laboratory confirmed measles cases in England alone, with cases in every region of the country. The UK actually lost its measles elimination status in January 2026, after recording 2,911 of laboratory-confirmed cases in 2024 alone, the highest annual total since 2012. The good news is that protection is simple: two doses of the MMR or the newly introduced MMRV vaccine is all it takes.
If you are travelling with children or are unsure of your own vaccination history, it is worth checking before you go.
Then there is dengue fever, which has been quietly climbing the charts of things that actually bring British holidaymakers home unwell. Imported dengue cases in the UK hit a record 904 in 2024, the highest since surveillance began in 2009, though that figure fell to 344 in 2025. It remains a genuine risk across South and South-East Asia, the Caribbean, and parts of Africa and South America. There is no widely available preventative medicine for short-term travellers, so mosquito bite prevention, repellent, covering up at dusk, and sleeping under treated nets, is genuinely the best defence you have.
Finally, malaria. It does not make headlines the way it once did but imported malaria cases in the UK remain consistently high, with 1,629 recorded in 2025. Anyone travelling to sub-Saharan Africa, parts of Asia, or Central and South America should be taking antimalarial medication and should have discussed this with their GP or a travel health clinic before departure.
None of these are reasons to stay home. They are reasons to spend twenty minutes on TravelHealthPro before you pack.
The TUI Cape Verde illness claims: a long-running legal battle
While the Hondius story is rare and extraordinary, a quieter but equally important case has been building for several years. More than 1,700 British holidaymakers who travelled to Cape Verde with TUI have joined ongoing litigation following reports of serious gastric illness at specific resorts since 2022.
Infections including Shigella, Salmonella, E. coli, and the parasitic infection Cryptosporidium have all been documented and it is believed that at least eight British nationals have now died following illnesses linked to these holidays. The situation became severe enough that the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) issued a formal travel warning.
There is, however, an important point here for anyone who books a package holiday. Because these travellers booked through a single UK-based provider, they have genuine legal recourse under the Package Travel Regulations, something that would be almost impossible to pursue had they independently booked flights and hotels. Booking as a package is not just convenient. In a worst-case scenario, it can be the difference between having someone firmly in your corner or fighting alone in a foreign court.
Do I need travel insurance on a package holiday?
Yes, and more than most people realise.
For passengers caught anywhere near the margins of the newly declared Ebola emergency or trapped on the MV Hondius, a policy featuring emergency medical evacuation cover is genuinely invaluable.
Most standard NHS entitlements stop the moment you leave British shores, and when you are critically ill in one of the most remote stretches of ocean on the planet, getting you to a hospital equipped to treat you is a logistics operation that can easily run to tens of thousands of pounds.
Without the right cover, that bill lands with the patient or their family at the worst possible moment.
For the Cape Verde holidaymakers, the Package Travel Regulations already provide a layer of legal protection against TUI as the tour operator. But travel insurance would still have covered immediate medical costs abroad, repatriation home, and any emergency curtailment of the trip, offering faster, practical relief while the slower wheels of legal action keep turning. The two things work alongside each other rather than replacing one another.
What catches people out is not usually the policy itself but the small print. Not declaring a pre-existing condition, buying the cheapest option without checking what it actually covers, or assuming the Global Health Insurance Card does the same job as a proper policy are the three most common mistakes British travellers make.
The GHIC gives you access to state-provided healthcare in certain countries at a local level. That is a very long way from having an insurer coordinate an emergency flight home. Travel insurance is easy to resent when everything goes well. The people who wish they had it are always the ones who needed it and did not.
What actually happens to most British tourists abroad
Here’s the thing though. The headlines are not the full picture.
When you look at the broader data from the insurance industry, the story of holiday safety becomes considerably more balanced. Statistics confirm that roughly one in twenty British tourists will suffer a slip, trip, or fall while abroad. Not a mystery virus. Not corporate negligence. More often than not it is an unfamiliar hotel corridor, a slippery poolside tile, or simply the slightly-less-attentive version of yourself that tends to emerge around day three when you are finally, blissfully, off the clock. You are statistically far more likely to twist your ankle on a marble staircase than to find yourself in a genuine public health emergency.
That’s worth holding onto.
So is it actually safe to go on holiday in 2026?
Yes, and probably more so than ever before. The surveillance systems designed to catch outbreaks early are the most sophisticated they have ever been. The legal frameworks protecting package holidaymakers have real teeth. And the travel industry now operates under a level of scrutiny that simply did not exist years ago. Audits, oversight, and accountability are baked into the infrastructure in a way they were not before.
None of this makes you immune to misfortune. The buffet still carries its quiet risks. The mosquito remains entirely indifferent to your travel insurance policy. But these are managed risks, held in check by regulations, professional accountability, and a well-established consumer protection framework that the UK does genuinely well.
The odds are firmly in your favour. Millions of Britons will travel abroad this year, and the overwhelming majority will come home with nothing worse than sunburn and a slightly overweight suitcase. When things do go wrong, and occasionally they will, the protections now in place are more robust than they have ever been. That does not mean nothing can go wrong. It means that if it does, you are not facing it alone.
Just make sure you check the UK Health Security Agency website and bought the right travel insurance first.
Sources: World Health Organisation, ECDC, CDC, UKHSA, FCDO, Irwin Mitchell, NHS, TravelHealthPro, Condor Ferries Travel Statistics. All data correct as of 3 June 2026.
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