Praia, Feb. 10, 2026 (Lusa) - The government of Cabo Verde on Tuesday rejected and dismissed as false the allegations that have been circulating for ten days, starting in the UK media, about an outbreak of gastrointestinal infections affecting British tourists who have visited the archipelago.
In a joint statement issued by the ministries of foreign affairs, health and tourism, the Government "formally repudiates the false allegations published by certain media outlets that improperly associate Cabo Verde with an outbreak of shigella".
"Such assertions are characterised by the absence of technical justification or official notification through internationally established diplomatic and health channels," the document reads.
According to the Government, "to date, no formal notification has been issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or health authorities identifying Cabo Verde as the source of an epidemiological outbreak".
"The mere temporal association between travel and the occurrence of cases of disease does not constitute proof of causality, which requires laboratory confirmation and properly structured epidemiological investigation - requirements that were not observed in the news reports," it added.
Today's position follows statements by Cabo Verde's minister of health, Jorge Figueiredo, who on 2 February, in response to the articles, said "there is no public epidemiological evidence confirming an active outbreak of shigellosis".
According to articles published on 1 February, some families link the deaths of four British tourists between August and October 2025 to gastrointestinal infections contracted on the island of Sal and intend to take legal action against tour operator TUI and hotel chain RIU.
The articles gathered testimonies from family members and the lawyer representing them, which were replicated by various media outlets and shared on social media, taking on the contours of an alleged outbreak.
Tourism is the driving force behind Cabo Verde's economy and remains focused on the resorts on the islands of Sal and Boa Vista, despite some initiatives in recent years to decentralise it to the rest of the archipelago.
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