Hantavirus Outbreak

The United Nations health agency says a hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship is not the start of a pandemic.

the World Health Organization (WHO), said the situation was unlike Covid-19 because hantavirus spreads through “close, intimate contact”.

Health authorities are tracing dozens of passengers who recently disembarked from the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius. The WHO said on Thursday that five of eight suspected cases had been confirmed. Three people have died, including a 69-year-old Dutch woman who tested positive for the virus. Her husband and a German woman also died, though officials are still investigating whether hantavirus was involved.

Hantavirus is usually spread by rodents, but the WHO said the outbreak marked the first documented evidence of person-to-person transmission linked to the virus.

The expedition cruise, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, left Ushuaia, Argentina, on 1 April and is due to arrive in Spain’s Canary Islands on 10 May. About 150 passengers and crew from 28 countries were initially on board, though dozens disembarked on St Helena on 24 April.