Right now throughout a press convention on the hantavirus outbreak linked to vacationers on a Dutch cruise ship, World Well being Group (WHO) officers repeatedly assured reporters that, although critical, the present scenario just isn’t “one other SARS-CoV-2.”
“This isn’t COVID. This isn’t influenza,” stated Maria Van Kerkhove, PhD, WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention. “That is an outbreak on a ship and we don’t anticipate a big epidemic.”
This isn’t COVID. This isn’t influenza.
Van Kerkhove and WHO Director-Normal Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, stated that hantavirus causes critical sickness and has a big case-fatality price, however excessive shut contact is required within the uncommon instances the place person-to-person transmission has been recorded.
To this point 5 of the eight suspected instances have been laboratory-confirmed with hantavirus. Sequencing on affected person samples has confirmed it’s the Andes pressure of the virus, which is present in South America.
Tedros stated WHO was working with Argentinian officers to analyze whether or not a fowl watching journey taken by the primary case-patients earlier than boarding the ship could have been the place the publicity occurred. He additionally stated at the moment onboard the MV Hondius are an skilled from the WHO, an official from the European Centre for Illness Management, and two Dutch public well being consultants.
Tedros stated america and Argentina, two nations that left the WHO this 12 months, are working carefully with the group to trace this outbreak. Thirty passengers from 12 nations disembarked from the ship after the primary fatality on April 24, Tedros stated, and all nations have been attentive to contact tracing and reaching these passengers.
Passengers ought to monitor themselves for six weeks
Tedros stated individuals who have been aboard the ship ought to monitor themselves for signs for six weeks, the outer restrict of the hantavirus incubation interval. They don’t have to self-isolate until they’re symptomatic.
US officers sought to reassure People that they’re responding to the outbreak.
“Our CDC crew started coordinating with home and worldwide companions as quickly as we have been notified of a hantavirus scenario,” stated Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) performing director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PHD on X final evening. “Hantavirus just isn’t unfold by folks with out signs, transmission requires shut contact, and the danger to the American public could be very low. CDC has the world’s main consultants on hantavirus and is lending its technical experience when coordinating with interagency companions, state well being workplaces, and worldwide authorities on response and repatriation planning.”
Van Kerkhove stated the WHO was ready for testing outcomes from Dutch authorities who have been alerted {that a} flight attendant who was in touch with an contaminated particular person could also be sick.
Two folks in Singapore who had been on the ship have been additionally in isolation at present and being examined for the virus.