The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued an update about the hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship traveling across multiple countries.
According to CNN, WHO said on Tuesday, May 5, that some human-to-human transmission may have occurred on board the cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak that has left three people dead and several others ill.
Dr. Maria Van Kerhove, WHO’s director for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, told reporters, “We do know that some of the cases had very close contact with each other and certainly human-to-human transmission can’t be ruled out so as a precaution this is what we are assuming.”
“The risk to the general public is low. This is not a virus that spreads like flu or like COVID. It’s quite different,” she added.
Almost 150 people, including 17 Americans, remain stranded on the MV Hondius that is currently off the coast of West Africa.
The ship, operated by tour company Oceanwide Expeditions, left Ushuaia, Argentina last month on a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, stopping off at some of the world’s most remote islands.
But along the way, several passengers fell sick with a rapidly progressing respiratory illness, the company said.
Seven cases of hantavirus, a rare disease typically caused by contact with infected rodents’ urine, faeces or saliva, have been identified so far. Two of those are confirmed and five suspected.
Three people, a Dutch couple and German national, have died while one British national remains in intensive care in South Africa.
