Published on: 2026-05-09
Source: United Nations – United Nations –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
The risk of the spread of the antavirus among the general public remains “absolutely low,” and the situation has nothing in common with the COVID-19 pandemic. This was stated by representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday at a briefing in Geneva. WHO continues to coordinate response measures to the outbreak on a cruise ship docked off the coast of Cape Verde.
Let us remind you that three people died on board the Dutch liner Hondius, several others fell ill, which caused a large-scale international response from the countries of Europe, Africa, and Latin America.
WHO representative Christian Lindmeier noted on Friday that even people who had been in close contact with infected individuals, including a flight attendant who served one of the passengers, received negative test results. According to him, this confirms that the virus is primarily dangerous for those who are actually infected, but does not pose a significant threat to the population as a whole.
According to WHO data, eight cases of infection have been registered, including five laboratory confirmed and three suspected cases. Lindmayer emphasized that even living together in the same cabin did not always lead to transmission of the infection, which once again demonstrates its extremely limited ability to spread from person to person.
Transmission chains are carefully monitored
Contact tracing of potentially infected individuals continues beyond the ship. The Dutch stewardess, who had brief contact with a passenger who later died from the infection, also tested negative. According to Lindmayer, specialists are analyzing the passenger lists of airplanes and ships, as well as the routes of people’s movements, to exclude all possible transmission chains.
WHO emphasizes that the current outbreak is fundamentally different from the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, which claimed millions of lives. Transmission through antavirus, as a rule, requires prolonged and close contact – most often between family members, partners, or healthcare workers. In this case, the patient’s wife, who is undergoing treatment in Switzerland, does not show symptoms, which, according to the WHO representative, confirms the virus’s low infectivity.
How the outbreak unfolded
The first patient known to health authorities fell ill on April 6 and died on board the ship. His wife died after evacuation to South Africa, where laboratory tests confirmed a hantavirus infection. Before boarding the airliner, the spouses traveled through Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, visiting areas inhabited by rodents – the natural carriers of the virus.
Another passenger died on May 2. One man remains in intensive care in South Africa, but his condition is improving. Other sick individuals were transferred to hospitals in the Netherlands. WHO reported that among the passengers and crew remaining on board, there are no symptoms of illness.
Hantaviruses are zoonotic viruses transmitted by rodents. Human infection usually occurs through contact with infected animals or their secretions. The Andean strain, found in some countries of Latin America, is the only known hantavirus capable of limited human-to-human transmission. It was precisely from this strain that the passengers of the cruise liner Hondius were infected.
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