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“I hope it’s fine” — President Trump says “we’re in very good shape” on hantavirus
President Donald Trump speaks throughout a Maternal Healthcare Event within the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 11, 2026.
(Image credit score: Getty Images)
President Donald Trump was requested in regards to the hantavirus during a maternal healthcare event today (May 11) in the Oval Office.
“Now the one thing with this one is that it’s much harder to catch. It’s been around a long time, people are very familiar with it,” Trump mentioned. “So, I hope it’s fine. All I can do is what a president can do, which is actually somewhat limited.”
“It seems like it is not easy to spread; in fact, in certain ways, it’s very hard to spread,” he added. “We’ve lived with it for years — many years — and we think we’re in very good shape.”
Genetics of the virus seem similar to previous outbreaks, Spanish well being minister says
“The first genetic analyses of the MV Hondius hantavirus confirm that it corresponds to the Andes variant that is already known and rule out relevant mutations,” Spain’s well being minister Mónica García wrote in a translated statement on X. “Investigation is helping to reconstruct how transmission occurs and to strengthen epidemiological monitoring.”
Tentatively, these preliminary outcomes are excellent news, suggesting the virus just isn’t quickly evolving new skills — gaining mutations that might make it extra contagious, as an illustration.
What will occur to the American passengers now that they are again within the U.S.?
The Davis Global Center on the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus, which holds the National Quarantine Unit, is seen on May 11, 2026 in Omaha, Nebraska.
(Image credit score: Dylan Widger/Getty Images)
Good afternoon, everybody. We’re again with extra updates concerning the cluster of hantavirus circumstances related to the cruise ship MV Hondius.
Following their evacuation onto the Spanish island of Tenerife early Sunday (May 10), the ship’s passengers are being repatriated by way of chartered flights. Seventeen American residents and one British nationwide have been transported to the U.S.
One member of this group has “mild symptoms,” according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), whereas one other has reportedly examined “mildly” optimistic on a PCR check, which measures the quantity of viral genetic materials in a pattern. These passengers have now been taken to a specialised facility at Emory University in Atlanta, according to the HHS.
Spain’s secretary of state for well being, Javier Padilla, noted that this passenger had beforehand had one inconclusive check and one destructive check on board the MV Hondius. During the evacuation, although, every passenger was handled as a doable optimistic case out of warning.
The remaining passengers are being transported to specialized facilities housed at Nebraska Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center. There, they are going to be evaluated for signs and interviewed about their diploma of contact with contaminated passengers on the ship. The Nebraska Biocontainment Unit on-site is provided to securely deal with any passengers with signs. Hantavirus infections may be lethal, and so they require immediate therapy to enhance sufferers’ possibilities of survival.
“If they weren’t in close contact with someone who was symptomatic, then we’re going to deem them ‘low risk'” when it comes to chance of publicity, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, appearing director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), mentioned in an interview with CNN. “If they were in close contact, we’re going to deem them ‘medium’ or ‘high risk.'”
Following that analysis, passengers might be provided the choice of staying in Nebraska or being safely transported to their dwelling state, if “their home situation allows it,” Bhattacharya continued. If transported dwelling, these people would then be monitored by their state and native well being departments with CDC help.
Bhattacharya famous that the protocols being adopted on this scenario are the same ones employed during a 2018 event through which one particular person in Delaware examined optimistic for the Andes virus, marking the first-ever case within the U.S.
Ben Turner
WHO Director-General to individuals of Tenerife
(Image credit score: FABRICE COFFRINI/POOL/AFP by way of Getty Images)
On May 9, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), shared a message with the residents of the Spanish island of Tenerife, the place MV Hondius is anticipated to make port Sunday (May 10).
“It is not common for me to write directly to the people of a single community, but today I feel it is not only appropriate, it is necessary,” he wrote. “I want to speak to you directly, not through press releases or technical briefings, but as one human being to another, because you deserve that.”
“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment. But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now.”
Tedros continued by reiterating that there aren’t any symptomatic passengers on board MV Hondius, {that a} WHO knowledgeable is on the ship, and that Spanish authorities have ready a plan to securely disembark the passengers and crew. He thanked Prime Minister Sanchez for Spain’s “act of solidarity and moral duty” in receiving the MV Hondius passengers and crew.
“I intend to travel to Tenerife to observe this operation firsthand, to stand alongside the health workers, port staff, and officials who are making it happen, and to personally pay my respects to an island that has responded to a difficult situation with grace, solidarity, and compassion. Your humanity deserves to be witnessed, not just acknowledged from a distance.”
You can learn Tedros’s full assertion on the WHO’s social media platforms.
Nicoletta Lanese
Weekend updates
Live Science is signing off for the weekend, however our reporters and editors will proceed to trace the outbreak because it evolves. If something main modifications, we’ll pop on right here to let you recognize — however barring that, we’ll be again to running a blog at an everyday clip on Monday (May 11).
Nicoletta Lanese
Spain finds South African exposed to woman who died of hantavirus
In a translated X post, Spain’s well being minister, Mónica García, introduced, “We confirmed that the second person who traveled on the plane at the same time as the Dutch woman from the MV Hondius cruise ship, who later died from hantavirus in Johannesburg, has been located.”
According to García, the South African lady is at present asymptomatic in South Africa, after having stayed every week in Barcelona.
“According to the epidemiological investigation carried out, during her stay she stayed alone in a hotel and did not have close contacts,” García posted.
CDC will escort Americans on MV Hondius to quarantine in Nebraska
Other nations are scrambling to include the outbreak as issues develop about what is going to occur when the MV Hondius docks in Tenerife, a part of Spain’s Canary Islands. The ship is predicted to dock on the port metropolis of Granadilla Sunday (May 10), however Oceanwide Expeditions, the ship’s operator, has mentioned that is topic to alter. The firm additionally said that no symptomatic people are at present on board and that it has “preparations regarding our point of arrival, quarantine and screening procedures for all guests, and the onward travel plans for all guests and affected crew are being led by organizations from a number of countries.”
Kenna Hughes-Castleberry
There isn’t any vaccine for hantavirus, however analysis is promising
Scientists on the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases have been engaged on hantavirus vaccines for the reason that Eighties, virologist Jay Hooper instructed Nature News. Hooper’s workforce has already accomplished Phase I clinical trials of a vaccine that protects in opposition to the Andes virus — the one hantavirus sort that has been proven to unfold between people — that has been linked to the MV Hondius cluster. But the workforce has not recognized a area with sufficient circumstances to run the complete medical trial that might enable them to satisfy licensing necessities for a vaccine.
“Right now, we are pushing from the research side, but there is no strong external pull, so progress is slower than it could be. It is frustrating — like pushing a rock up a hill for years,” Hooper mentioned.
Scientists on the University of Bath in the U.K. are additionally engaged on a vaccine that targets the hantaan hantavirus, which is discovered primarily in East Asia. To date, they’ve examined their vaccine in laboratory and animal fashions, however they’ve but to advance to Phase I trials in people. And scientists on the University of Guelph in Canada are working to develop vaccines that forestall hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome brought on by the Andes virus and different “New World” sorts.
But specialists instructed NBC News that hantavirus vaccine research has repeatedly stalled, partly as a result of outbreaks are likely to have an effect on impoverished nations the place pharmaceutical corporations aren’t investing their assets.
“Our funding agencies don’t put a lot of money into this, because it’s likely not to cause the next epidemic or pandemic,” Sabra Klein, a molecular microbiologist on the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, instructed NBC News.
Kristina Killgrove
US residents on board will obtain repatriation flight
“The Department of State is closely tracking the hantavirus outbreak on a Dutch cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean and maintaining close contact with the cruise ship staff, Americans on board, and U.S. and international health authorities,” the spokesperson mentioned in a press release.
The Department of State is in touch with the Americans on the ship and can present consular help as quickly because it docks at Tenerife, Spain, based on the spokesperson.
Hantavirus evacuation has a short while window resulting from climate situations
“Otherwise, the ship must leave and no operation could be carried out again in theory … until the end of May,” Cabello added, citing hostile climate situations equivalent to wind and swell.
If all goes properly, the passengers might be flown again to their dwelling nations below quarantine situations quickly after the vessel arrives Sunday (May 10).
Ben Turner
Is hantavirus on the rise?
“Argentina has become more tropical because of climate change, and that has brought disruptions, like dengue and yellow fever, but also new tropical plants that produce seeds for mice to proliferate,” Dr. Hugo Pizzi, an infectious-disease specialist and epidemiologist at the National University of Córdoba in Argentina, told the AP. “There is little question that as time goes by, the hantavirus is spreading an increasing number of.”
The joint PAHO and WHO report found that Argentina and Brazil experienced “a rise in [hantavirus disease] lethality” in 2025, compared with recent averages. Bolivia and Paraguay have seen substantial increases in hantavirus infections compared with historical averages.
Between 1993 and 2023, there have been 890 cases of hantavirus disease in the U.S., of which 35% of cases were fatal. (The U.S. first started surveilling hantavirus infections in 1993.) It is unclear whether the incidence is increasing in the U.S., as data covering 2024 and 2025 is currently unavailable, according to the PAHO and the WHO.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control reported 1,885 confirmed cases of hantavirus infection across 28 European Union/European Economic Area counties in 2023. Along with 2020, 2023 marked the lowest case rate for the 2019-to-2023 period.
Hantavirus disease cases in East Asia, particularly in China and the Republic of Korea (South Korea), have declined in recent decades, according to the WHO.
Where did the cruise cease?
An aerial view of the MV Hondius.
(Image credit score: Getty Images)
Since leaving Ushuaia, Argentina, April 1, MV Hondius has visited numerous islands.
The ship first visited South Georgia and Tristan da Cunha, earlier than crusing on to St. Helena. They stopped at St. Helena April 24, with this being the ultimate vacation spot for some passengers on board.
The ship then continued on to Ascension Island, leaving April 27. The vessel arrived in Cape Verde waters, off the west coast of Africa, on May 3 however was denied plans to dock.
MV Hondius is now crusing to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the west coast of Africa, the place it is because of arrive by early Sunday.
Sophie Berdugo
2 Singapore residents check destructive for hantavirus
The company performed exams “with multiple samples collected from the individuals, and confirmed that hantavirus, including the Andes virus, was not detected,” officers wrote.
However, because of the lengthy incubation interval of hantaviruses, those that check destructive now can flip optimistic later. This signifies that the pair will stay in isolation.
“As a precaution, the two individuals will be quarantined for 30 days from the date of last exposure, and testing will be conducted again before release from quarantine,” they continued. “They will then undergo phone surveillance for the remaining monitoring period of 45 days from the date of last exposure, which is the maximum incubation period for hantavirus exposure.”
The company says the danger to most people in Singapore is low.
Woman self-isolating in Alicante
A girl is self-isolating within the Spanish metropolis of Alicante after touring on a flight “close to” a girl who died with a hantavirus an infection, Spain’s well being minister, Mónica García, wrote in a translated statement on X.
The lady “has reported mild symptoms compatible [with the disease] and is being preventively isolated while the National Microbiology Center analyzes the diagnostic samples that will be taken from her,” García wrote.
“We reiterate that the risk for the general population remains very low,” she concluded.
Ben Turner
“We shouldn’t be alarmist; we should be realistic,” hantavirus knowledgeable says
This is what Gustavo Palacios, a hantavirus knowledgeable and professor of microbiology on the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York who documented a earlier outbreak of the illness, instructed El País in a narrative printed in the present day.
Palacios led a research of the November 2018 to February 2019 Andes virus outbreak within the village of Epuyén, in Argentina’s Chubut province. There had been 34 confirmed circumstances and 11 deaths throughout that outbreak, with human-to-human transmission occurring throughout a “superspreader” celebration that resulted in 4 generations of infections.
Palacios instructed El País that these findings had been met with skepticism. “It’s been a David versus Goliath story, trying to convince the global virology community” that there may be chain infections from the Andes virus, he mentioned in a translated interview.
However, Palacios famous that the situations of the 2018 Argentine outbreak are “quite different” from the at present unfolding scenario.
“We must keep in mind that we know little about the Andes virus because it hasn’t been studied much,” he mentioned. “We’ve never seen how it behaves on a ship.”
Despite the dearth of knowledge, the situations on the ship are theoretically worse than the 2018 outbreak in Argentina. “A ship is inherently a place that facilitates contagion,” Palacios mentioned.
Sophie Berdugo
British authorities determine new suspected case
(Image credit score: Getty Images)
U.Okay. authorities have recognized a brand new suspected case of hantavirus on the South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, based on a May 8 statement by the U.Okay. Health Security Agency.
The particular person, a British man, doubtless disembarked from the MV Hondius when it made a cease there on April 15. He is at present within the hospital whereas his partner is isolating, U.Okay. officers mentioned. The island’s inhabitants is slightly over 200 individuals.
Ben Turner
What will occur when the ship arrives in Spain?
“They will arrive at a completely isolated, cordoned-off area,” Virginia Barcones, Spain’s head of emergency companies, mentioned at a May 7 news conference. “They will board vehicles that are isolated and under guard and will proceed to a section of the airport that will be completely cordoned off. They will board the aircraft and depart.”
“I am saying this so that the people of the Canary Islands, the men and women living there, can rest assured that there will be absolutely no possibility of contact at any time,” she concluded.
Sophie Berdugo
U.S.’ sluggish hantavirus response presents a troubling glimpse into future pandemic preparedness, specialists say
“We should be able to deal collectively with a hantavirus outbreak much more quickly and effectively than this is happening,” Stephanie Psaki, a public well being knowledgeable at Brown University and former coordinator for international well being safety within the Biden administration, instructed the NYT. “It can get much harder than this.”
President Donald Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization (WHO) on Jan. 20, 2025, and formally withdrew Jan. 22, 2026. Consequently, the CDC just isn’t instantly notified of updates from the WHO referring to rising well being threats, Dr. Daniel Jernigan, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infection Diseases, instructed the NYT. Jernigan resigned from his put up in August 2025.
The U.S.’ resolution to go away the WHO “makes both the United States and the world less safe,” WHO officers wrote in a statement printed Jan. 24, 2026.
When requested at yesterday’s (May 7) information convention on the hantavirus cluster whether or not U.S. well being authorities are collaborating within the ongoing investigation, WHO representatives confirmed that the U.S. CDC was working with the WHO every day.
“Viruses don’t care about our politics, they don’t care about our borders, and they don’t care about all the excuses that we may have,” mentioned Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director-general.
Sophie Berdugo
“It’s very much, we hope, under control”: U.S. units lowest emergency degree response to the virus
President Donald Trump spoke to reporters in regards to the Andes virus cluster as he inspected the portray of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool basin with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
(Image credit score: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Those had been the phrases of President Donald Trump when requested if he’d been briefed on the virus.
“I think we’re going to make a full report about it tomorrow,” he continued. “We have a lot of people — a lot of great people are studying it. It should be fine, we hope.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has labeled the scenario as “Level 3,” its lowest degree of emergency response, ABC News reported Thursday (May 7). That grade of emergency response is typical for this stage of a illness cluster, and it means the company is actively monitoring the scenario.
Dutch flight attendant exams destructive for hantavirus an infection
“As you know, the incubation period is long and although she is negative for now, she might turn positive in the future,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director-general, instructed Inside Medicine by way of a textual content message.
Ben Turner
Other cruise passengers within the U.S.
An aerial view of the cruise ship MV Hondius stationary off the port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, on May 5, 2026.
(Image credit score: Getty Images)
In addition to the particular person in Arizona who just lately returned from a cruise on the MV Hondius, a number of individuals in Georgia and California are dealing with the identical scenario.
On May 7, the Georgia Department of Public Health instructed Live Science by way of electronic mail that it’s “monitoring two Georgia residents who returned home after disembarking from the MV Hondius, the cruise ship at the center of a hantavirus outbreak. The individuals are currently in good health and show no signs of infection. They are following current recommendations from CDC.”
Also on May 7, the California Department of Public Health instructed Live Science by way of electronic mail that the division is coordinating with native well being officers to watch returning vacationers, as wanted.
“There is no information that the California residents are ill or infected. In order to protect patient privacy, CDPH cannot disclose the travelers’ residences or other information. At this time, the risk to public health in California is low,” the assertion concluded.
Seventeen Americans stay on the MV Hondius, The New York Times reported.
Arizona Department of Health Services provides a hantavirus replace
The particular person is at present asymptomatic, and based mostly on the knowledge obtainable, it does not appear doubtless that that they had a lot, if any, shut contact with the contaminated people on the ship, officers mentioned. The native well being division will decide if the particular person requires testing, and sure, that would not occur until they develop signs, mentioned Kenneth Komatsu, a state epidemiologist with Arizona Department of Health Services. That’s partly as a result of an asymptomatic particular person might very properly come again destructive on a check, he famous.
If the person had been to ultimately develop signs, testing, contact tracing and quarantining would observe, together with monitoring of family contacts, Komatsu and different spokespeople advised.
I requested whether or not the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had supplied steerage on how the division ought to deal with the scenario.
“As CDC is currently working at a fast pace to put out some recommendations and guidance, most jurisdictions that have any individuals potentially exposed, they’ve been in contact with CDC sometimes two, three times a day to answer our questions,” mentioned Dr. Joel Terriquez, medical director of the Bureau of Infectious Disease Services and the Bureau of Immunization Services with the Arizona Department of Health Services.
“Guidance is currently being developed and an official recommendation will be coming out soon,” he added. Komatsu additionally confirmed that public-facing CDC steerage was forthcoming. When requested which CDC division was heading the trouble, he pointed to the Division of Global Migration Health throughout the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.
The well being division emphasised that the danger to Arizonans stays low. “We just want to make sure that the message is clear,” Terriquez mentioned. “This situation is very low risk to the general public.”
As at all times: Vet your sources
With that in thoughts, be cautious of unhealthy actors, significantly on social media, who make the most of uncertainty to sow doubt or fire up conspiracies. I perceive the impulse to hunt out extra info and to pose questions when one thing is unclear or underexplained — however that’s distinct from spreading misinformation and disinformation.
In brief, if a given social media consumer’s essential objective is to realize views and monetization, fairly than to supply readability and well-sourced experience, their enter is unlikely to serve you.
Trump admin axed Andes virus analysis
In the long term, the objective of CREID’s many tasks was to raised perceive germs able to leaping from animals to individuals with the intention to reply rapidly and successfully to future outbreaks. While the Andes virus pilot program doubtless would not have stopped this cruise ship outbreak, its loss might very properly undermine scientists’ broader efforts to grasp hantaviruses and the risk they could pose sooner or later.
Airline crewmember being examined for hantavirus
The contaminated particular person — the girl whose husband was the primary to die on board — had felt unwell when she disembarked on the island of St. Helena. Her situation worsened throughout a flight from St. Helena to Johannesburg, South Africa. She then tried to board a flight from Johannesburg to Amsterdam, however “due to the passenger’s health condition at the time, the crew decided not to allow the passenger to board the flight,” KLM has said.
The lady subsequently died and her case was later confirmed to be a hantavirus an infection.
During her temporary time on the Amsterdam-bound aircraft, the sick passenger interacted with the flight attendant who’s now at Amsterdam UMC with gentle signs of sickness. Doctors expect to obtain the attendant’s check outcomes later in the present day, which is able to reveal if she has a hantavirus an infection, CNN reported.
(For background, sustained shut contact is often required for Andes virus infections to transmit between individuals, so it is unclear whether or not this temporary encounter can be significantly dangerous.)
Nicoletta Lanese
Catching a killer — the way to hint a uncommon and lethal virus
(Image credit score: CDC)
Andes virus outbreaks are uncommon, with only a handful documented for the reason that Nineteen Nineties. This makes investigations into clusters of circumstances like these related to the MV Hondius difficult. However, one outbreak that hit southern Argentina’s village of Epuyen in 2018 could show to be informative.
The Epuyen outbreak contaminated 34 individuals and led to 11 deaths resulting from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, through which a hantavirus assaults the lungs.
According to a 2020 research printed in The New England Journal of Medicine, the Epuyen circumstances stemmed from three separate superspreader occasions. The first occurred when the primary contaminated particular person, or index affected person, attended a celebration with round 100 others.
The 68-year-old man, who was feverish and feeling poorly on the time, attended for about 90 minutes and handed the an infection to a number of individuals who had been sitting close to him. Additional circumstances adopted as a number of of those people or their shut contacts attended different occasions whereas sick.
In many circumstances, contaminated individuals handed on the virus on the primary day they started feeling feverish, the research authors decided. That hints that the an infection may be at its most contagious when these early signs emerge — that means the shut confines of a ship could possibly be a great location for the virus to unfold in that point window.
Ben Turner
Clarity on cruise itinerary
(Image credit score: Getty Images)
Various social media posts and movies have been casting suspicion on when the MV Hondius really departed Ushuaia, Argentina. The WHO’s web site notes April 1 because the departure date, whereas the Africa CDC web site states March 20. So I reached out to the cruise operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, in regards to the discrepancy.
A spokesperson shared that, from March 20 to March 30, the ship traveled from Ushuaia to Antarctica and again. Then, from April 1 to April 24, it traveled from Ushuaia to the island of St. Helena. Then, between April 24 and May 4, it traveled from St. Helena to Cape Verde.
When requested if any potential hantavirus circumstances had been related to that first leg of the journey, the spokesperson directed me to the WHO’s official statements. The earliest identified symptomatic case was on April 6 and concerned a person who had boarded the ship April 1.
Both the person and his spouse — the second passenger to get sick — had traveled in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay previous to boarding, and officers at present suspect that that is after they received uncovered. Both people have since died.
Viral movies of distressed passengers
Additionally, as soon as the medical standing of everybody on board is assessed, the WHO may also coordinate with every particular person’s dwelling nation to securely repatriate them.
Deceased passenger stays on board
The physique of the third particular person to die within the outbreak — a girl who handed away on board May 2 after creating pneumonia — continues to be being saved on the MV Hondius. WHO officers are in touch with the cruise operators about secure storage and eventual transport of the stays.
Genetic sequencing underway
As of but, there’s “no indication” that there is something significantly uncommon in regards to the hantaviruses themselves, however it’s notable that the outbreak is going down on a cruise ship, mentioned Anaïs Legand, the WHO’s technical officer of viral hemorrhagic fevers. A ship is a singular surroundings the place individuals from many locations are in shut quarters.
The WHO recommends that contacts be monitored for six weeks, because the incubation interval — the time between when somebody is uncovered to the virus and when signs start — of hantavirus infections may be that lengthy. Known circumstances which can be symptomatic are being remoted and cared for in hospitals.
Nicoletta Lanese
Where did the an infection come from?
The Andes virus is transmitted to people mainly through contact with the long-tailed pygmy rice rat (Oligoryzomys longicaudatus). People could choose up the virus by way of publicity to the rat’s urine, feces or saliva. For occasion, they might by chance contact the rat’s feces after which contact their face, or breathe in viral particles that get launched into the air when rodent droppings get disturbed within the surroundings.
Ben Turner
“Viruses don’t care about politics”
(Image credit score: FABRICE COFFRINI/POOL/AFP by way of Getty Images)
Both Argentina and the U.S. just lately withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO). In the face of this outbreak, “I think they will reconsider their positions,” mentioned Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director-general. “Viruses don’t care about our politics, they don’t care about our borders, and they don’t care about all the excuses that we may have.”
When requested whether or not U.S. well being authorities are collaborating within the ongoing investigation, a number of WHO representatives confirmed that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is offering useful technical help and experience and speaking with WHO leaders every day.
Nicoletta Lanese
World Health Organization says threat to the general public is “low”
Maria Van Kerkhove at a WHO information convention.
(Image credit score: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP by way of Getty Images)
The World Health Organization (WHO) simply held a information convention to debate the hantavirus circumstances.
The WHO has been working with collaborating facilities to determine the kind of virus behind the outbreak, in addition to examine suspected and confirmed circumstances and carry out contact tracing. The company has additionally been fast to quash fears that the outbreak might spark a worldwide pandemic.
“This is not SARS-CoV-2 [the virus that causes COVID-19]. This is not the start of a COVID pandemic. This is an outbreak that we see on a ship,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s interim director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, mentioned on the information convention.
“This is not the same situation we were in six years ago,” she continued. “It [the Andes virus] doesn’t spread the same way like coronaviruses do. It’s very different. It’s that close, intimate contact that we’ve seen, and most hantaviruses don’t transmit between people at all.”
“The Andes virus, which has been identified here — we’ve seen some human-to-human transmission,” she added. “I want to reiterate [that] the actions that are being taken on board are precautionary to prevent any onward spread, and so there’s a lot that is being done right now to be able to try to minimize the risk even further.”
What is hantavirus, and the way dangerous is that this outbreak?
(Image credit score: ROGER HARRIS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY by way of Getty Images)
Hantaviruses are a household of viruses carried by rodents. Hantavirus infections in people are comparatively unusual, however after they do happen, they are often harmful, with fatality charges ranging between 1% and 50% relying on the kind of hantavirus. No particular therapy exists to treatment infections, however immediate medical care can enhance sufferers’ possibilities of survival.
While most hantaviruses can not go between individuals, one particular sort, referred to as the Andes virus, can. The Andes virus is the kind of hantavirus that laboratory exams level to being behind this cluster. Health authorities at the moment are working to investigate the virus’s DNA to match its sequence to that of Andes viruses concerned in previous outbreaks.
The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have mentioned the danger posed to the general public from this cluster stays low, though they proceed to watch the scenario.
For extra on the Andes virus, you may learn well being editor Nicoletta’s story here. And for more background information on hantaviruses, broadly, you can read this story.
Ben Turner
This page was created programmatically, to read the article in its original location you can go to the link bellow:
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and if you wish to take away this text from our web site please contact us
