LONDON: Five of the eight suspected cases of hantavirus linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship have now been confirmed, the World Health Organization (WHO) said at a press briefing in Geneva on Thursday (May 7).
The wider public health threat from the outbreak remained low, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, adding that the WHO was aware of reports of other patients and there may be more cases due to the long incubation period of the virus.
Ghebreyesus also said that WHO had informed 12 countries that its nationals had disembarked the MV Hondius cruise ship on the remote British island of Saint Helena.
“Those 12 countries are Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, the United Kingdom and the United States of America,” he said.
Ghebreyesus added that Argentina would be sending 2,500 hantavirus diagnostic kits to labs in five countries following the outbreak.