The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concerns about the potential spread of hantavirus after three passengers from a cruise ship died, but it expects the outbreak to be limited if precautions are taken. Another sick passenger from the MV Hondius landed in Europe earlier in the day, as the vessel headed to the Spanish Canary Islands.
Health personnel are seen boarding the cruise ship MV Hondius, while it is stationary off the port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde. The World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday 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 map the outbreak of the potentially deadly human-to-human strain. The fate of the Hondius sparked international alarm after three people travelling 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.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in Geneva that five confirmed and three suspected cases had been reported overall, including the three deaths. People thought to have contracted the virus are being treated or isolating in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and South Africa. The Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands later announced another patient had tested positive.
However, the WHO's emergency alert and response director Abdi Rahman Mahamud insisted: 'We believe this will be a limited outbreak if the public health measures are implemented and solidarity shown across all countries'. The ship's operator, Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions, said there were 149 people on the ship, including 88 passengers.
Two people who returned to the UK from the ship have been advised to self-isolate, the UK Health Security Agency said, adding they were asymptomatic and insisting the risk to the public was 'very low'. 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.
The first case was a Dutch man who had boarded in Ushuaia along with his wife died aboard the ship on April 11. The couple had visited Chile, Uruguay and Argentina before the cruise. The Dutch woman had flown on a commercial plane from the island of Saint Helena to Johannesburg while she was showing symptoms. Officials were trying to trace people on that flight, which South African-based carrier Airlink said was carrying 82 passengers and six crew
World Health Organization Hantavirus Cruise Ship Argentina Uruguay Chile Ushuaia Saint Helena Johannesburg Airlink Public Health Measures Solidarity Rat-Borne Virus Incubation Period Symptomatic Individuals Public Risk Limited Outbreak
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