The World Health Organisation will hold a media briefing on Thursday at 6:30 pm IST in response to a deadly hantavirus outbreak linked to the cruise ship MV Hondius. Three people have died so far, and several others are receiving treatment, as per the WHO.
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The ship sailed from Argentina and was en route to the Canary Islands, before it was halted off the coast of West Africa at Cape Verde. The WHO said eight cases linked to the outbreak have now been identified. This includes three infections confirmed through laboratory testing.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency would provide updates through its official platforms later today.
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Hantavirus outbreak: Updates so far
- The virus involved is the Andes strain of hantavirus, a rare variant capable of limited person-to-person transmission. WHO said the strain was identified by South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases and Geneva University Hospitals in Switzerland.
- Health officials say hantaviruses are usually spread through contact with infected rodents, including exposure to rodent urine, saliva or droppings. The Andes strain, commonly found in Argentina and Chile, is unusual because it can also spread between humans through close and prolonged contact, such as sharing food, sleeping arrangements or confined living spaces. Experts say such transmission remains rare.
- Dutch authorities confirmed that around 40 passengers disembarked from the ship during a stop at St Helena, a remote British territory in the South Atlantic Ocean, after the first death on board, as per the Associated Press. Authorities are now trying to trace them. Those who left the vessel included the wife of a Dutch passenger who later died in South Africa, as well as a Swiss passenger who later tested positive for hantavirus after returning home.
- The Dutch foreign ministry said the passengers who disembarked also included a Dutch woman receiving treatment in South Africa and a Swiss man currently under medical care. Authorities have not confirmed where the remaining passengers who left the ship are now located.
- The Dutch cruise operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, had earlier said only the Dutch woman had disembarked with her husband’s body at St Helena before flying to South Africa on a commercial flight. She later collapsed at Johannesburg airport and died. Laboratory tests later confirmed hantavirus infection.
- A British passenger was later evacuated from the ship to South Africa from Ascension Island and remains in intensive care, according to South African authorities.
- Further evacuations took place while the ship was near Cape Verde, where three people, including the ship’s doctor, were removed and flown to Europe for treatment.
- An air ambulance believed to be carrying one of the evacuated passengers landed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Thursday morning. Officials in Spain confirmed the patient had been transferred through Gran Canaria before continuing to Amsterdam on another medical aircraft.
- Of the other evacuees who arrived earlier, one was transferred to a hospital in Leiden, the Netherlands, while another was taken to Germany.
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Hantavirus outbreak: Updates so far
- The virus involved is the Andes strain of hantavirus, a rare variant capable of limited person-to-person transmission. WHO said the strain was identified by South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases and Geneva University Hospitals in Switzerland.
- Health officials say hantaviruses are usually spread through contact with infected rodents, including exposure to rodent urine, saliva or droppings. The Andes strain, commonly found in Argentina and Chile, is unusual because it can also spread between humans through close and prolonged contact, such as sharing food, sleeping arrangements or confined living spaces. Experts say such transmission remains rare.
- Dutch authorities confirmed that around 40 passengers disembarked from the ship during a stop at St Helena, a remote British territory in the South Atlantic Ocean, after the first death on board, as per the Associated Press. Authorities are now trying to trace them. Those who left the vessel included the wife of a Dutch passenger who later died in South Africa, as well as a Swiss passenger who later tested positive for hantavirus after returning home.
- The Dutch foreign ministry said the passengers who disembarked also included a Dutch woman receiving treatment in South Africa and a Swiss man currently under medical care. Authorities have not confirmed where the remaining passengers who left the ship are now located.
- The Dutch cruise operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, had earlier said only the Dutch woman had disembarked with her husband’s body at St Helena before flying to South Africa on a commercial flight. She later collapsed at Johannesburg airport and died. Laboratory tests later confirmed hantavirus infection.
- A British passenger was later evacuated from the ship to South Africa from Ascension Island and remains in intensive care, according to South African authorities.
- Further evacuations took place while the ship was near Cape Verde, where three people, including the ship’s doctor, were removed and flown to Europe for treatment.
- An air ambulance believed to be carrying one of the evacuated passengers landed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Thursday morning. Officials in Spain confirmed the patient had been transferred through Gran Canaria before continuing to Amsterdam on another medical aircraft.
- Of the other evacuees who arrived earlier, one was transferred to a hospital in Leiden, the Netherlands, while another was taken to Germany.
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- “All passengers showing symptoms of hantavirus have now been removed from the MV Hondius,” the cruise ship’s operator said on Thursday. “No symptomatic individuals are present on board,” Oceanwide Expeditions said after three passengers were evacuated to the Netherlands for treatment.
- Dutch health officials also confirmed that a woman in Amsterdam had been admitted to hospital with possible hantavirus symptoms. Dutch broadcaster RTL reported that she worked as a KLM stewardess and had been in contact with a woman who later died from the infection in Johannesburg.
- Health agencies in Europe, South Africa and the US are now tracing contacts linked to passengers who left the ship. People in at least three US states are being monitored for possible exposure, The New York Times reported.
- WHO said Swiss authorities confirmed one case after a passenger responded to a health alert issued by the cruise operator and sought treatment at a hospital in Zurich. International contact tracing is now being coordinated under the International Health Regulations framework.
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- The UN agency also said Argentina’s national laboratory network and the Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal were helping in the investigation and response.
- Argentina is consistently ranked by the WHO as having the highest incidence of hantavirus in Latin America. Officials and researchers are now investigating whether the outbreak onboard the cruise ship may have originated in the country before the vessel departed for Antarctica.
- WHO said it will continue coordinating with affected countries to support testing, passenger monitoring, medical treatment and efforts to prevent further spread of the virus.
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(With inputs from AFP, Reuters and AP)
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