A deadly hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean poses a low global public health risk and is "not the start of another COVID pandemic", the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
Three people have died and several others have fallen ill aboard the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, prompting a major international public health response involving countries across Europe, Africa and Latin America.
The first alert came from the United Kingdom, which notified WHO under International Health Regulations (IHR) of the outbreak after passengers aboard the vessel developed severe respiratory illness during the trip from Argentina to Cabo Verde.
Briefing journalists in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said eight cases had been reported so far, including five laboratory-confirmed infections and three suspected cases linked to the rare Andes strain of hantavirus
Low risk to humans
Hantaviruses are zoonotic viruses carried by rodents and are usually transmitted to humans through contact with infected animals or their urine, saliva or droppings (checkout WHO's hantavirus factsheet here ).
The Andes strain, found in parts of Latin America, is the only known hantavirus capable of limited human-to-human transmission.
