WHO Rejects Pandemic Fears as Hantavirus Ship Reaches Tenerife

(MENAFN) The head of the World Health Organization has moved to calm public concerns after a cruise ship linked to a hantavirus outbreak approached Spain’s Tenerife, stressing that the situation does not resemble another global pandemic scenario and poses minimal risk to local residents, according to reports.

The vessel, the MV Hondius, a Dutch-flagged cruise ship traveling in the Atlantic, was carrying 147 passengers and crew members from 23 different countries when an outbreak of the Andes strain of hantavirus was detected onboard. This particular strain is rare and is generally transmitted through exposure to rodents or their contaminated droppings, urine, or saliva.

The ship, which has been described in some media coverage as a “plague ship,” had departed Argentina on April 1 en route to Cape Verde before the outbreak escalated. The first confirmed fatality was a 70-year-old Dutch passenger who developed symptoms on April 6 and died five days later. His 69-year-old wife transported his body to South Africa, where she later also died from the illness in a Johannesburg hospital on April 26. A third victim, a German woman, also passed away on May 2.

Unlike most forms of hantavirus, the Andes variant is known to allow limited transmission between humans, typically requiring close and prolonged contact with an infected person. At present, there is no specific cure for infections caused by this virus, and treatment focuses only on managing symptoms.

Despite the fatalities, the WHO director-general reassured residents in Tenerife that the threat should not be compared to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The risk to you, living your daily life in Tenerife, is low. This is the WHO’s assessment, and we do not make it lightly,” he stated in a letter issued on Saturday. He also emphasized that while hantavirus infections are “serious,” they should not be viewed as a new coronavirus-style global emergency.

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