WHO warns of more hantavirus cases in 'limited' outbreak

“The World Health Organisation 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. '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 Centre in the Netherlands later announced another patient had tested positive. But 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.' People thought to have contracted the virus are being treated or isolating in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and South Africa. Hantavirus is a rare respiratory disease that is usually spread from infected rodents and can cause respiratory and cardiac distress as well as haemorrhagic fevers. There are no vaccines and no known cure for it. A passenger is thought to have contracted the virus before boarding the ship in Argentina and eventually infected others on board as it sailed across the Atlantic. Three evacuees were whisked away from the ship on Wednesday when it anchored off Cape Verde and a fourth landed yesterday in Amsterdam, said the vessel's operator, Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions. 'No symptomatic individuals are present on board' the ship at the moment, as it sails toward the Spanish island of Tenerife, it said in a statement. The ship is scheduled to arrive there on Sunday and those on board evacuated. The ship's Dutch operator 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.

Summary generated from the RSS feed of Gulf Times Education. All article rights belong to the original publisher. Click through to read the full piece on www.gulf-times.com/community/education.