WHO message of reassurance: "Hantavirus is not COVID, it is very different"

BarcelonaThe Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has stated that the number of confirmed hantavirus cases on board the Oceanwide Expeditions cruise ship has risen to five, and that the main line of investigation into the origin of the outbreak would be a bird-watching trip through Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina in which the Dutch couple who later fell ill on board the MV Hondius and subsequently died participated. Nevertheless, the WHO's Director of Prevention, Maria Van Kerkhove, has stressed that this outbreak has nothing to do with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic: "This is not COVID, this is not flu, it spreads very differently."

In total, since the start of the outbreak on board the cruise ship, eight infected individuals have been identified, three of whom have lost their lives. The remaining infected people or those with compatible symptoms have been evacuated to Cape Verde, the Netherlands, and Germany, and one of them found out once he had returned home to Switzerland. Regarding the possible ninth case under study, that of a flight attendant who had contact with one of the fatal victims in South Africa and is under observation in a hospital after reporting symptoms, the health authority has limited itself to saying that it is a health alert and that they are awaiting confirmation. If this were the case, it would be the first case of hantavirus detected outside the cruise ship and by a person who was not traveling. The rest of the passengers who are on board the ship continue to be asymptomatic and en route to the Canary Islands, Adhanom stressed.

Meanwhile, Argentina —the country from which the virus-affected cruise ship departed— is trying to reconstruct the journey of the first infected individuals to try to ascertain the origin of the outbreak. Thus, several technicians have traveled to Ushuaia to reconstruct the journey of the couple who were the first infected —both have died— before embarking on the sea voyage aboard the MV Hondius. In the last four months, they had been in a large part of this country, but also in Chile and Uruguay. In this regard, the WHO has focused on a bird-watching trip through Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina in which the Dutch couple participated. "Before boarding the cruise ship on April 1, the couple who has died from hantavirus traveled to 'places where the species of rat known for transmitting the Andes virus is present'," explained Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"We know this virus"

The WHO's director of prevention, Maria Van Kerkhove, has stressed that this hantavirus outbreak should not awaken the ghost of the start of the covid-19 pandemic. "We are not dealing with coronavirus or the flu, we know this virus," insisted the head of the organization's pandemic management, who indicated that, on this occasion, the details of how the virus that causes the infection is transmitted are known. Furthermore, she indicated that, unlike the zero zone in a market in a large Chinese city for coronavirus, hantavirus is confined to a ship which, due to its characteristics, is isolated.

The WHO's Director-General has expressed confidence that those who are currently expressing concern in the Canary Islands about the risks of the arrival of the ship where a hantavirus outbreak has been registered "will understand, support, and cooperate with the Spanish government." At the press conference from Geneva, Tedros explained that he directly made the request to the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, who accepted it by virtue of what is established in the international health regulations, although, beyond that, the most important thing in this case is "solidarity".

For her part, Van Kerkhove has assured that, on board the ship, passengers and crew are taking protective and self-protective measures, using masks, staying in their cabins to avoid contact, and disinfecting the cruise ship.