The World Health Organization said on Sunday that all passengers and crew aboard the cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak should be treated as “high-risk” contacts and monitored for 42 days after disembarkation.
“We classify everybody on board as what we call a high-risk contact,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, said during a media briefing.
She added that although “nobody on board has any symptoms” at present, the WHO recommends “active monitoring and follow-up of all the passengers and crew who disembark for a 42-day period.”
According to a WHO Disease Outbreak News update, the outbreak was first detected on May 2 aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship. At the time, 147 passengers and crew members were on board, while another 34 people had already disembarked.
As of May 8, eight symptomatic cases had been reported, including three deaths. Six of the infections have been laboratory-confirmed as Andes virus (ANDV) hantavirus cases.
The WHO said international contact tracing efforts are underway, with health authorities in affected countries informed through the organisation’s contact network.
Despite the outbreak, Van Kerkhove said the risk to the general public and residents of the Canary Islands – where the ship is expected to dock – remains “low.”
The global health body urged countries involved to continue coordination on contact tracing, patient care, infection prevention measures and transparent public communication.
WHO noted that early symptoms of hantavirus infection include fever, chills, headache, dizziness, muscle pain and gastrointestinal issues such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pain.
The agency also advised low-risk contacts to self-monitor, seek medical evaluation if symptoms appear and wear masks, noting that pre-symptomatic transmission seen in earlier ANDV outbreaks cannot be fully ruled out.
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