Hantavirus, a rodent-borne infection that in rare cases can be transmitted from person to person, has sparked alarm globally after an outbreak — in which three cases turned fatal — unfolded over weeks on a cruise ship as it sailed across the Atlantic Ocean.
The concerns worldwide, years after Covid outbreak, prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to address a press briefing on Thursday on the cruise ship outbreak to say that the risk to the wider public is low because the virus can’t easily be passed between people.
The first case in the hantavirus outbreak on the , carrying about 150 tourists from various countries, was identified on May 2, when a sick deboarded passenger was tested amid three others on the ship dying few days apart of each other.
The first death, a 70-year-old Dutch man, was reported on April 6, five days after the ship set off from Ushuaia in the far south of Argentina. Scheduled stops included Antarctica and several isolated South Atlantic Ocean islands.
The Dutch man fell unwell on board with fever, headache and mild diarrhea. Before boarding, the man and his wife, who was also Dutch, had gone sightseeing in Ushuaia, and traveled elsewhere in Argentina and Chile, according to WHO. The wife also died on April 26 in South Africa after collapsing at an airport while trying to board another plane home.
The man’s body was taken off the ship on April 24 in Saint Helena, an island in the south Atlantic where 29 other passengers, including his wife, disembarked, according to the ship’s operator.
The third fatality was a German woman, who died onboard nearly a month after the first passenger fell ill.
List of countries affected
The WHO that its nationals had disembarked at Saint Helena, part of the British Overseas Territory. 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,” AFP news agency quoted Tedros as saying.
Directly affected countries
-Argentina – passengers boarded the ship in Ushuaia.
-Saint Helena – the cruise ship stopped there and authorities are monitoring contacts.
-South Africa – infected passengers were hospitalized there.
-Cape Verde – destination of the cruise route.
-Netherlands – the ship operator is Dutch and two deceased passengers — a couple — were Dutch.
-United Kingdom – Saint Helena is a British territory, and a British patient tested positive.
Countries notified by WHO because their nationals disembarked at Saint Helena
-Canada
-Denmark
-Germany
-New Zealand
-Saint Kitts and Nevis
-Singapore
-Sweden
-Switzerland
-Turkey
-United States
-Combined unique list
-Argentina
-Saint Helena
-South Africa
-Cape Verde
-Netherlands
-United Kingdom
-Canada
-Denmark
-Germany
-New Zealand
The UN health agency has said the outbreak is not the start of a pandemic.
Argentine health authorities said Thursday they had not yet been able to establish where the outbreak began.
“With the information provided so far by the countries involved and participating national agencies, it is not possible to confirm the origin of the infection,” the health ministry said after a meeting with authorities from all 24 Argentine provinces.
Even though the three deaths have sparked international alarm, health officials have played down fears of a wider global outbreak from the rat-borne virus, which is less contagious than Covid-19.
