RRome, 8 May. (askanews) – The health authorities of several countries are engaged in one race against time to track and contain an outbreak of hantavirus after the World Health Organization (WHO) said that five confirmed cases of infection had been identified among people connected to the cruise ship MV Hondius.
Three people, a Dutch couple and a German citizen, died since the ship left Argentina last month. Some passengers were disembarked. But 146 people from 23 countries, including 17 Americans, are still on board the ship, subjected to “rigorous precautionary measures”said the shipping company Oceanwide Expeditions which flies the Dutch flag, waiting to arrive in Tenerife on Sunday, where they will all be dropped off.
Work is underway to trace the passengers, in particular those who disembarked in the remote area Saint Helena at the end of April. Those who were on the ship and the suspected contacts are being monitored by various countries, from the USA to Canada, with hospitalizations so far in Switzerland, the Netherlands and South Africa.
Incubation, experts say, can reach six weeks. The first two confirmed cases traveled between Argentina, Chile and Uruguay during a birding trip that included visits to sites where the rat species known to carry the virus is present, the WHO director said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesusto journalists.
Meanwhile, the Argentine Ministry of Health showed the images ofMalbran Institute of Buenos Aires where test supplies are prepared in the laboratory to diagnose the Andean strain of hantavirusto which the outbreak has been linked, a rare but potentially serious virus that in some cases can spread between humans through close contact. Argentina stated that a Ushuaiawhere the ship departed, no cases of hantavirus had been recorded for decades.
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