Chobe is quiet for bites in the dry season. The CDC's malaria advice still covers it.

Yes, though a June–September trip sees few of them. The CDC names "Chobe (including Chobe National Park)" among the Botswana districts where it recommends malaria prevention medicine, which covers Kasane in every month of the year. In the dry season, the exposure is mostly the river at dusk, and there are no tsetse flies.

Malaria advice for Chobe and Kasane

The district has had a hard few seasons. In 2025, cases surged from March after unusually heavy rain, and WHO's Africa office named Chobe among the hardest-hit districts of a national outbreak that had passed 2,300 confirmed cases and 8 deaths by the end of May. Cases were reported in Chobe District again in 2026, which the district council chair blamed on heavy rains that left standing water, Botswana's Daily News reported. WHO's Africa bulletin for October 5–11, 2026 lists no malaria event for Botswana. Our Botswana briefing covers the other districts.

Yellow fever vaccine is not recommended, and Botswana asks for proof only from travelers 1 year or older arriving from a country with yellow fever risk, including layovers of more than 12 hours there.

Dry season on the river

June to September is the dry season and peak safari time, when elephants tend to gather on the riverfront, and visitors tend to report few mosquitoes. June to August nights are cold. The likeliest exposure is at the water around dusk, on sunset cruises, on riverfront drives that come back after sundown and at dinners on lodge decks. Put repellent on before the afternoon activity, wear long sleeves and trousers after dark, and sleep under an intact net or in a screened room.

Two more CDC warnings fit the same trip. It lists African tick-bite fever, so check for ticks after bush walks. It also says schistosomiasis and leptospirosis are found in Botswana and advises, "Avoid swimming in fresh, unchlorinated water, such as lakes, ponds, or rivers." That rules out the Chobe River.

Tsetse flies, the daytime biters of Tanzania's and Zambia's parks, aren't a Chobe issue. WHO counts Botswana as free of the tsetse that carry the rhodesiense form of sleeping sickness, and the CDC's Botswana page doesn't list the disease.

Before and after the dry season

October heat tends to bring more insects before the rains. The rains, roughly November to March, bring the most mosquitoes and malaria. A trip then, or in the weeks just after, calls for the same clinic visit and a stricter evening routine. The CDC's listing is the same in every month.

Where you're going

Kasane is also a base for day trips to Victoria Falls through Kazungula, and the CDC recommends malaria medicine for all of Zambia and Zimbabwe; our Victoria Falls briefing covers both sides. Continuing to the Delta? See the Okavango briefing.

What travelers report

Paraphrased from TripAdvisor forum threads and linked so you can read them in full. Neither carries a year, and both are about September trips.

• Chobe, Moremi, Okavango Delta and Maun · September

  Posters who had visited in September said they barely noticed mosquitoes in Chobe, Moremi or the Delta, but did at their riverside lodge in Maun at dusk. They called early-September malaria risk very low but not zero, and told the asker, who had an immune concern, to check with their own doctor. TripAdvisor ↗

• Kasane · September

  A poster said a clinic had told them they did not need antimalarials for the region in September. A reply countered that low risk is not no risk and that the medicine has to be taken before and after exposure. TripAdvisor ↗

One rule outlasts the trip. Any fever during or after your trip means a doctor visit and a malaria test, and you tell the doctor you were in Chobe. After time in Botswana's malaria districts, the rule holds for a full year.

Traveler questions