The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius left Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1st and headed north to Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands by way of Tristan da Cunha and different distant islands within the South Atlantic, the place the remaining passengers had been evacuated. |Photograph courtesy: AP
The World Well being Group on Thursday (2 July 2026) declared an finish to a lethal hantavirus outbreak on board a cruise ship, sparking worldwide alarm after the final contaminated individual escaped quarantine.
There have been 12 confirmed and 1 possible instances attributable to MV Hondius, together with 3 deaths.
However regardless that the outbreak is over, scientists and specialists are nonetheless within the early phases of making an attempt to study classes from the occasion, which triggered a worldwide well being alarm.
“At the moment, the final contact of the individual contaminated with hantavirus on the cruise ship MV Hondius has accomplished his isolation interval and returned residence after testing unfavorable,” WHO Director-Common Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated at a press convention.
“Since Might 25, no new instances have been reported. We’re due to this fact very happy to have the ability to say that the WHO considers the hantavirus outbreak to be over.”
The Dutch-registered ship left Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1, and sailed north to Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands, by way of Tristan da Cunha and different distant islands within the South Atlantic, the place the remaining passengers had been evacuated.
The polar expedition ship lastly entered the port of Rotterdam within the Netherlands on Might 18th.
On Might 30, the ship was cleaned and disinfected and allowed to set sail once more.
The seek for future vaccines
Tedros stated greater than 650 contacts had been recognized and follow-up investigations had been being carried out by well being authorities in 33 international locations and areas.
He stated WHO will proceed to work to grasp the unfold of an infection and the virus itself.
“We’re additionally coordinating a examine involving 21 international locations to grasp how the illness develops, and can help the event of diagnostics, therapies and vaccines for future outbreaks,” Tedros stated.
Transmitted by rodents, hantavirus is a uncommon virus for which there is no such thing as a vaccine or particular remedy.
The Andes species behind the Hondius outbreak is the one pressure of hantavirus recognized to be transmitted from human to human.
It was believed {that a} passenger on the ship contracted the virus whereas touring by way of an endemic area of Argentina.
Nevertheless, the nation’s Ministry of Well being introduced in June that an investigation in Argentina’s second province had discovered no rodents carrying the virus.
Diana Rojas Álvarez, WHO’s head of high-impact infectious illnesses, stated the Hondius outbreak was now not a public well being threat and may very well be declared over.
“Nevertheless, Andesvirus and different hantaviruses stay a public well being risk to South America and different endemic areas,” she stated.
Specialists should proceed to watch these viruses, put together for additional unfold, and contain communities in preparedness and prevention.
“Analysis on hantaviruses must proceed over time,” she stated.
The WHO hopes the incident will immediate member states to finalize the lacking elements of the pandemic settlement later this month, doubtlessly permitting the settlement to lastly develop into operational.
