CDC's malaria advice covers all of Angola, and your yellow fever card is checked on arrival.

Are there mosquitoes in Angola? Yes, and CDC recommends prescription medicine to prevent malaria for the whole country, from Luanda to Benguela, Lobito and the Namib coast. Angola also requires proof of yellow fever vaccination from every arriving traveler 9 months and older, including on a trip from the US, so a family visit or a work posting starts at a travel clinic.

Malaria and yellow fever come first

The parasite is mainly Plasmodium falciparum, resistant to chloroquine. Angola reported 10.64 million confirmed malaria cases in 2024, up from 9.10 million in 2023, according to WHO's World Malaria Report 2025. Travelers visiting family are the ones malaria most often catches out, because they tend to skip the prevention medicine. Malaria mosquitoes bite from dusk to dawn, so put on repellent before sunset, wear long sleeves after dark and sleep in an air-conditioned or screened room or under a net.

Yellow fever is back. The 2016 epidemic began in Luanda and spread to 16 provinces, and Angola then had no confirmed case until 2024. In 2025 WHO counted 11 confirmed cases and 1 death, including a small outbreak in Massangano district, Cuanza Norte Province.

Dengue in Luanda, and the rest of CDC's list

CDC lists dengue and Zika for Angola. The newest dengue data come from Luanda Province in April–July 2024, when researchers found the DENV-3 type in 11.8% of feverish patients tested. There are no national figures for 2025 or 2026. The dengue mosquito bites in daylight, with peaks after sunrise and in the late afternoon, so repellent goes on over sunscreen in the morning, not only at dusk. Our dengue & Zika routine has the schedule. CDC notes that an infected pregnant woman can pass Zika to her unborn baby, so if you're pregnant, talk with a healthcare provider before you go.

CDC also lists African sleeping sickness, spread by tsetse flies, and African tick-bite fever for Angola without saying where they occur, hence treated clothing and a tick check after a day in the bush.

CDC says "Active cholera transmission is widespread in Angola," and WHO's Africa office counted 42,327 cases and 1,016 deaths from January 5, 2025 to August 15, 2026, so stick to safe food and water. Angola is also on CDC's Global Polio notice, under which adults who completed the childhood series may get a single lifetime polio booster.

When to go

In the coastal north, the rains tend to run from about October to April or May, and the cool, dry cacimbo season from about June to September, when mosquitoes are generally fewest. CDC's malaria advice and the yellow fever entry check apply in every month.

Where you're going

Continuing south or east? Our Namibia and Zambia briefings cover the next stop.

What travelers report

Paraphrased from TripAdvisor forum threads and linked so you can read them in full. Neither is dated, and both are about malaria pills more than bites.

• Angola (Luanda) · evenings

  A traveler asked about alternatives to malaria pills. A poster who said they had lived in Luanda for 27 years without prophylaxis still recommended it for visitors, another warned that repellent and clothing alone were risky, and one named evenings as the riskiest time. TripAdvisor ↗

• Luanda, Miradouro da Lua and Kissama

  A traveler planning a two-day Luanda stay with a day trip to the Moon Viewpoint and Kissama park asked whether malaria pills were worth taking for so short a visit, saying Malarone had made them sick. TripAdvisor ↗

Any fever during or after your trip needs prompt care and a malaria test, and you tell the doctor you were in Angola. After time in a malaria area, that rule holds for a year.

Traveler questions