Share and Follow
On Sunday, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced that the current hantavirus situation is “stable for now.”
In his update, Tedros noted that WHO has recorded 12 hantavirus cases, resulting in three fatalities, with no additional deaths reported since May 2. The outbreak is suspected to have originated in South America following the embarkation of infected travelers on the cruise ship MV Hondius earlier this month.
“All passengers and crew remain in quarantine under strict monitoring to ensure they receive necessary care,” Tedros shared on the social media platform X. “The situation is stable for now, but we continue to stay vigilant and maintain close communication with all relevant governments.”
This update follows Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s announcement on Friday. He stated that he has signed a targeted Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act declaration to facilitate the development and deployment of medical countermeasures for the Andes virus strain of hantavirus.
“This action aims to eliminate obstacles to research and response efforts as we keep a close watch on the recent outbreak linked to the South Atlantic cruise ship,” Kennedy explained in a statement on social media. “HHS is taking this situation seriously, and we will continue to work diligently to protect public health and support the safe development of potential treatments and countermeasures.”
Argentina’s Ministry of Health said a Dutch couple took part in a bird-watching tour that stopped at a garbage dump and they may have been exposed to infected rats. The couple, along with a German national, contracted the Andes strain and died.
Seventeen Americans and one British national exposed to hantavirus on the cruise ship were quarantined either in Nebraska or Georgia while health officials monitored them for symptoms. Most have not shown symptoms of hantavirus, though one person tested positive without being symptomatic, while another had mild symptoms but did not test positive.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier this month that there were no cases of the Andes strain in the U.S.
Health officials regularly assured that the outbreak did not resemble the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and emphasized the differences between both viruses when it came to close-contact infection and the incubation period.
But an outbreak of the Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease, in which there are more than 500 suspected cases in the Congo alone, prompted the WHO to declare the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.