WHO warns of more hantavirus cases
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that more hantavirus cases could emerge after the disease killed three passengers from a cruise ship, but it expected the outbreak to be limited if precautions were taken.
Another sick passenger from the MV Hondius landed in Europe earlier in the day, as the vessel headed to the Spanish Canary Islands and health officials scrambled to trace the outbreak of the potentially deadly human‑to‑human strain.
The fate of the Hondius sparked international alarm after three people traveling on it died, though health officials have played down fears of a wider global outbreak from the rat‑borne virus, which is less contagious than Covid‑19.
A Dutch couple who had traveled around South America before boarding the ship in Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 were the first fatalities.
Incubation period
Argentine health authorities said on Thursday they had not yet been able to establish where the outbreak began.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in Geneva that five confirmed and three suspected cases had been reported overall, including the three deaths.”Given the incubation period of the Andes virus, which can be up to six weeks, it’s possible that more cases may be reported,” he said, referring to the rare strain detected aboard the Hondius, which can be transmitted between humans.
The Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands later announced another patient had tested positive.
But the WHO’s emergency alert and response director Abdi Rahman Mahamud said he believed it would be “a limited outbreak” if “public health measures are implemented and solidarity shown across all countries.”
People thought or known to have contracted the virus are being treated or isolating in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and South Africa.
Rare disease
Hantavirus is a rare respiratory disease that is usually spread from infected rodents and can cause respiratory and cardiac distress as well as hemorrhagic fevers. There are no vaccines and no known cure.
A passenger is thought to have contracted the virus before boarding the ship in Argentina and infected others on board as it sailed across the Atlantic.
Officials in Argentina said they planned to test rodents in the coastal city of Ushuaia, from where the ship had set sail on April 1.
Three evacuees were whisked away from the ship on Wednesday when it anchored off Cape Verde and a fourth landed in Amsterdam on Thursday, according to the vessel’s operator, Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions.
YouTuber Kasem Ibn Hattuta, a passenger aboard the Hondius, posted a video recounting how he learned of the first death around 12 days after the start of the trip.
“Most people on board are reacting very calmly to the situation, unlike what is being reported in the media,” Hattuta said.
“Today was supposed to be the last day of our 35-day voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. But it is clear that our journey will not end here,” he added, referring to Cape Verde’s refusal to allow the Hondius to dock.
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