Three people died and several more fell ill aboard the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, prompting a major international public health response involving countries in Europe, Africa and Latin America.
The first alert came from the United Kingdom, which reported WHO under the International Health Regulations (IHR) of the outbreak after passengers on board the ship developed a severe respiratory illness during the voyage from Argentina to Cape Verde.
Inform journalists in Geneva, the Director General of the WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus He said eight cases had been reported so far, including five laboratory-confirmed infections and three suspected cases linked to rare Andean strain of hantavirus
Low risk to humans.
Hantaviruses are zoonotic viruses carried by rodents and are generally transmitted to humans through contact with infected animals or their urine, saliva, or droppings (check out WHO hantavirus fact sheet here).
The Andes strain, found in parts of Latin America, is the only known hantavirus capable of limited person-to-person transmission.
According to the WHO, transmission usually requires close, prolonged contactparticularly among household members, intimate partners, or healthcare workers.
“At this stage, The overall public health risk remains low.”said Dr. Tedros.
WHO officials are clear that the outbreak is very different from the 2020 coronavirus pandemic that killed millions of people around the world.
“This is not SARS-CoV-2. This is not the beginning of a COVID pandemic,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s acting director of epidemic and pandemic management.
“Hantaviruses have been around for quite some time. We know this virus. It does not spread the same way coronavirus does.”
Ongoing investigation
The first known patient developed symptoms on April 6 and subsequently died aboard the ship. His wife also became ill and died after being evacuated to South Africa, where laboratory tests confirmed hantavirus infection.
Before boarding, the couple had traveled through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay on a bird-watching trip, including visits to sites where the rodent species known to carry the virus is present.
Another passenger died on May 2, and while one man remains in intensive care in South Africa, the WHO said his condition is improving. Other patients have been transferred to hospitals in the Netherlands for treatment.
who said No passengers or crew currently remaining on board the ship are showing symptoms..
International effort
The outbreak has triggered measures under the International Health Regulations, the global framework designed to coordinate responses to cross-border health threats.
The WHO said it is working closely with authorities in Cape Verde, Spain, the Netherlands, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Argentina, together with the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
Spain agreed to allow the ship to dock in the Canary Islands, a Spanish autonomous community, after Cape Verde rejected the request on public health grounds.
Dr Tedros thanked Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for what he described as an act of “solidarity” and “moral duty”.
“The risk for canaries is really low.”
WHO initiative in Cape Verde
A WHO expert, Dutch doctors and a European disease specialist boarded the ship in Cape Verde earlier this week and are overseeing medical assessments and infection prevention measures during the voyage to Tenerife.
talking to UN NewsWHO representative in Cape Verde, Ann Lindstrand, said the agency had been supporting local authorities since the beginning of the response to the outbreak.
“During the trip to the Canary Islands we were able to bring medical supplies, so “If someone gets sick on the ship, there will be doctors and supplies to care for them during the voyage.”
He said that, in coordination with the WHO, national health authorities are contacting passengers who disembarked earlier to advise them to seek medical attention quickly if they develop symptoms.
Passengers still on board have been asked to remain in their cabins while disinfection procedures are carried out. Anyone showing symptoms will be isolated immediately.
Misinformation on social networks
- Hantaviruses are a group of viruses carried by rodents that can cause serious illness in humans.
- People usually become infected through contact with infected rodents or their urine, droppings, or saliva.
- Hantavirus infection can cause a variety of illnesses, including serious illness and death.
- In the Americas, hantaviruses can cause hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCS), a serious respiratory disease, with a case fatality rate of up to 50 percent.
- Andes virus, found in South America, is a currently known hantavirus for which limited human-to-human transmission between contacts has been documented.
- In Europe and Asia, hantaviruses cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS).
Addressing misinformation circulating on social media, Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud of the WHO Health Emergencies Program highlighted that there are There are no signs that these are the early stages of a pandemic..
The infection occurred in a confined environment that involved prolonged close contact between passengers on board the ship, similar to a limited Andean hantavirus outbreak recorded in Argentina in 2018-2019. In that case, transmission was linked to a social gathering involving a symptomatic individual and resulted in only a small number of cases.
Dr Mahamud said existing public health measures, including contact tracing, isolation and monitoring, are well understood and can effectively break chains of transmission, making a large-scale epidemic unlikely.
Monitoring continues
The WHO warned that additional cases may still arise due to the incubation period of the Andean hantavirus can be up to six weeks.
“Viruses don’t care about politics or borders,” Dr. Tedros said. “The best immunity we have is solidarity..”
