How worried should you be about hantavirus?

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.On April 1st MV Hondius, a cruise ship carrying around 150 passengers and crew, set sail from Argentina towards the island nation of Cabo Verde. By early May an outbreak of hantavirus was reported on board, sending international health authorities scrambling to contain further spread and treat those taken ill.As of May 6th three cases among those on board had been confirmed and five more were suspected. Of those eight people, three have died.

Although information about the outbreak is still patchy, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other health bodies say the risk of hantavirus infections globally remains low.Human infections with hantavirus are rare. Such cases are usually caused by the inhalation of airborne particles from the droppings or urine of rodents such as mice and rats, in which the virus is endemic. Further spread from infected humans to others is rarer still, though not unheard of.

Very close contact—such as physical intimacy and interactions between health-care workers and patients—has historically been a prerequisite. Although no human-to-human transmission on MV Hondius has yet been confirmed, the cramped cabins and common areas of a cruise ship are an ideal environment for it to occur. The fact that the wife of the first passenger who died was infected, along with the ship’s doctor, is worrying.At least three of the infected individuals from MV Hondius have been diagnosed with the Andes strain of hantavirus, which is found in rodents in Argentina, and is known to spread between people.