What is hantavirus? How did cruise tourists get it?
The World Health Organization said five other passengers are suspected infected, while investigators are still testing whether exposure happened before boarding or at sea.
- Three cruise ship passengers died and five others are suspected of contracting hantavirus aboard the MV Hondius, which is anchored off Cape Verde after embarking from Ushuaia about three weeks ago.
- Vanderbilt University professor of preventive medicine William Schaffner noted that while large ships have rodents, "but the hygiene on ships is so elaborate because of the norovirus reputation that if I had to bet, I would say it may have been acquired on land rather than at sea."
- "You think you just have the flu for a couple of days, and then you crash when the virus gets into your lungs and heart," Schaffner said. Mortality rates for new world hantaviruses reach 40 percent.
- The World Health Organization said the spread remains contained to the passengers, and the risk to public health is low. Supportive care can help patients recover if begun early enough.
- Between 1993 and 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counted 890 cases in the United States. Lancaster University anatomy professor Adam Taylor noted there are at least 38 types of hantavirus, of which 24 cause human disease.
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Hantavirus: What is it and can it spread between humans?
The Hantavirus has made headlines after three people, who travelled on a luxury cruise across the Atlantic ocean from Argentina to Cape Verde, died of suspected cases of the virus. An adult female was one of the three individuals who died, and she passed away in Johannesburg as a confirmed case of Hantavirus… what is the Hantavirus and can this spread between people? WHAT IS THE HANTAVIRUS? Hantaviruses is a group of viruses carried by rodents t…
The WHO is investigating the origin of the contamination on board the "MV Hondius". For the time being, the organization is trying to be reassuring, considering that this type of virus does not spread "like flu or Covid-19".
El Universo
Noticias León | Última Hora León, Bierzo y PonferradaThe World Health Organization (WHO) said today that the most plausible hypothesis is that Hantavirus infection occurred outside the cruiser in which the infectious outbreak that has caused three deaths was declared, while 147 people remain on the boat off the coast of Cape Verde.
Hantaviruses lurk where mice and rats are located and can be transmitted by swirled dust.
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