The passengers of the MV Hondius are set to be medically assessed and evacuated under strict protocols after the vessel reaches Tenerife, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said<\/p>\n
The arrival of the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius cruise ship off Spain\u2019s Tenerife poses little risk of contagion to local residents, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said.
\nThe Dutch-flagged Atlantic liner, carrying 147 passengers and crew from 23 countries, suffered an outbreak of the Andes strain of hantavirus, a rare pathogen typically spread through contact with infected rodent droppings, urine, or saliva.
\nThe distressed vessel, dubbed the \u201cplague ship\u201d by some media, departed from Argentina for Cape Verde on April 1. The first victim, a 70-year-old Dutch man, began showing signs of illness on April 6 and died on April 11. His 69-year-old wife accompanied his body to South Africa, where she later also succumbed to the disease in a Johannesburg hospital on April 26. A third passenger, a German woman, died from the illness on May 2.<\/p>\n
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Captain of hantavirus \u2018plague ship\u2019 told passengers dead man was \u2018not infectious\u2019 (VIDEO)<\/p>\n
Unlike most hantaviruses, the Andes strain is known to be capable of limited human-to-human transmission through close contact with an infected person. There is no known cure for the disease caused by the virus, with symptomatic treatment being the only recourse.
\nHowever, Ghebreyesus assured Tenerife residents that hantavirus, while \u201cserious,… is not another COVID.\u201d
\n\u201cThe risk to you, living your daily life in Tenerife, is low. This is the WHO\u2019s assessment, and we do not make it lightly,\u201d he wrote in a letter\u00a0on Saturday.<\/p>\n
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Hantavirus: How dangerous is the cruise ship outbreak?<\/p>\n
There are \u201cno symptomatic passengers on board\u201d the MV Hondius at present, according to Ghebreyesus, with a WHO expert monitoring the situation on the ship. The WHO has reported eight cases linked to the vessel, including three deaths, with\u00a0six confirmed as hantavirus and\u00a0two\u00a0still considered suspected.\u00a0Authorities are also trying to trace more than two dozen people who disembarked before the outbreak was confirmed.
\nThe WHO director-general added that the passengers \u201cwill be ferried ashore at the industrial port of Granadilla, far from residential areas, in sealed, guarded vehicles, through a completely cordoned-off corridor, and repatriated directly to their home countries.\u201d
\nGhebreyesus arrived on the Spanish island to personally oversee the operation and again reassured residents that the risk was low during a short briefing alongside Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The passengers of the MV Hondius are set to be medically assessed and evacuated under strict protocols after the vessel reaches Tenerife, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said The arrival of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t