More hantavirus cases in ‘limited’ outbreak, WHO warns

GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday 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 trace 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.

US President Donald Trump said Thursday he had been briefed on the situation. “It’s very much, we hope, under control,” Trump told reporters.

“It was the ship -- and I think we’re going to make a full report about it tomorrow. We have a lot of great people studying it... It should be fine, we hope.”

A Dutch couple who had travelled around South America before boarding the ship in Ushuaia, Argentina on 1 April were the first fatalities.

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.

Rare disease

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 said he believed it would be “a limited outbreak” if “public health measures are implemented and solidarity shown across all countries.”

People thought or known to have contracted the virus are being treated or isolating in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and South Africa.