South Africa Yellow Fever Vaccination Requirements

Overview

There is no risk of contracting yellow fever in South Africa. The certificate is an entry requirement, and it applies only to travellers who arrive from, or have transited through, a country with a risk of yellow fever transmission.

If you are travelling directly from India and have not passed through a yellow-fever-risk country on the way, you do not need a yellow fever vaccination certificate to enter South Africa.

When is the certificate required?

South Africa requires a valid certificate from all travellers aged one year and over who have either travelled from a country with a risk of yellow fever transmission, or transited through one for more than twelve hours.

That twelve-hour clause is the one that matters to Indian travellers. Nairobi and Addis Ababa are both in yellow-fever-risk countries and both are common connecting points on the way to Johannesburg or Cape Town. A long layover at either turns a trip that needed nothing into a trip that needs the certificate. Gulf hub connections — Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi — do not.

The same applies to multi-country safaris. Fly Kenya to South Africa and you are arriving from a risk country, so the certificate is required even though it was not needed to enter Kenya in the first place.

Which countries count as risk countries?

South Africa applies WHO’s list of countries with a risk of yellow fever transmission. In Africa that currently includes Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sudan, Togo and Uganda, along with much of tropical South America.

Tanzania, Zambia, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Somalia and Eritrea are not on the list, so travellers arriving in South Africa from those countries do not need the certificate. Rwanda in particular used to appear on older versions of this list, including an earlier version of this page, and no longer does.

WHO’s list is revised periodically. Check the current version before travelling rather than relying on any transcription of it.

What happens without a valid certificate?

A traveller arriving from one of those countries without a valid certificate will either be refused entry, or placed in quarantine until the certificate becomes valid or six days have passed.

I have a medical exemption certificate. Will I be stopped?

Travellers holding an exemption certificate on medical grounds are allowed entry, but are required to report any fever or other symptoms to the health authorities and are placed under quarantine surveillance.

Remember the return leg

South Africa is not on India’s list of yellow-fever countries, so a South Africa trip creates no requirement on the way home — unless your itinerary routes you through Kenya, Uganda or Ethiopia, in which case it does. Our guide to yellow fever requirements for Indian travellers sets out both directions.

Planning the trip these vaccinations are for?

We have been designing African safaris for Indian travellers for fifteen years, and routing is part of that conversation — whether you need a yellow fever certificate often depends on where you change planes rather than where you are going. We cannot arrange vaccinations for you, but we can tell you exactly what your itinerary will require and plan around it.

Health requirements checked 3 August 2026 against WHO and India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. These change without notice, so please confirm through the official links above before you travel. We are safari specialists, not medical advisers.