The WHO affirms that the hantavirus outbreak does not mark the beginning of a pandemic after confirming 5 cases on the c
"This is not influenza; it spreads in a different way," said the WHO's director of epidemic and pandemic prevention and preparedness
The World Health Organization(WHO) assured this Thursday that the hantavirus outbreak detected on a cruise ship does not indicate the start of a pandemic.
“I want to be unequivocal about this: this is not SARS-CoV-2. This is not the start of a Covid-19 pandemic. This is an outbreak that “We are observing on a boat,” said Maria van Kerkhove, director of prevention and preparedness for epidemics and pandemics at the WHO.
“This is not covid, this is not influenza; it spreads in a very, different way,” he added.
Health authorities are actively investigating an hantavirus outbreak detected among passengers of a cruise that departed on April 1 from Ushuaia (Argentina).
Three people who were onboard the Dutch ship MV Hondius have died since the cruise began its journey.
The boat is headed to the Canary Islands, Spain.
The director-general of the WHO, Tedros Ghebreyesus, indicated in the same appearance that investigations into the course of the outbreak are still ongoing.
Tedros said that five cases of hantavirus have been confirmed in relation to this cruise, but more could emerge due to the six-week incubation period of the virus.
Contact tracing is being carried out in several countries for passengers who left the ship before the outbreak was detected, including the UK, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
Hantavirus is a group with more than 20 species of viruses, transmitted mainly by wild rodents, through inhalation of particles present in the urine, feces or saliva of animals.
Tourism in places of contagion
Tedros Ghebreyesus explained that the two first cases detected “toured Argentina, Chile and Uruguay on a birding trip that included visits to places where the species of rat known for carrying the virus was present.”
He said that WHO is working with Argentine authorities to determine the couple's displacements.
Tedros noted that, in previous outbreaks, transmission between humans only occurred due to “prolonged contact”, which he said was what happened in this case.
He noted that when a man presented symptoms onboard the ship on April 9, hantavirus was not suspected, so no samples were taken at that time.
The man's wife disembarked when the cruise docked in Saint Elena, and later died in Johannesburg (South Africa).
Tedros said that the samples taken in South Africa confirmed that it was hantavirus.
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