Cruise Ship Hantavirus Outbreak Triggers WHO Response

Hantaviruses are a family of viruses found worldwide that are typically transmitted to humans through contact with infected rodents, particularly by inhaling airborne particles of their urine, saliva or droppings. The disease can begin with flu-like symptoms such as fever, muscle aches and dizziness before progressing into a severe respiratory illness in which the lungs fill with fluid. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than a third of patients who develop these respiratory symptoms die. Although WHO stresses that hantavirus rarely passes from person to person, its appearance on a ship has alarmed health officials because passengers have spent weeks together in close quarters, and symptoms can take up to eight weeks to appear, making the source of infection difficult to trace.

Two of the confirmed deaths involved a 70-year-old Dutch man who died at sea on April 11 and his 69-year-old wife, who later collapsed at Johannesburg airport and tested positive posthumously. WHO has begun coordinating medical evacuations across multiple countries, while South African authorities are conducting contact tracing on people who may have crossed paths with infected travellers. Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, the WHO regional director for Europe, urged the public to remain calm, saying the wider risk remains low and that no travel restrictions are necessary. Oceanwide Expeditions is meanwhile considering rerouting the vessel to Spain's Tenerife or Las Palmas if Cape Verde does not permit medical disembarkation, while specialists race to identify how the virus first reached the ship.