Hantavirus scare on cruise ship: ICMR says no immediate threat to India

NEW DELHI: Two Indian nationals reportedly infected with hantavirus aboard a cruise ship appear to be isolated cases and there is “no immediate public health threat” to India, director of the ICMR’s National Institute of Virology (NIV) Dr Naveen Kumar said on Friday.Kumar said there was currently no evidence of community spread and stressed that hantavirus does not spread easily between humans unlike COVID-19.“The reported hantavirus cases appear to be isolated ones and there is no immediate public health threat to India,” he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.His remarks came after reports that two Indian nationals aboard the cruise vessel MV Hondius were detected with hantavirus.According to the World Health Organisation, the Indian passengers were among a small cluster of suspected infections identified aboard the ship, with health authorities monitoring contacts and taking precautionary measures.As quoted by news agency AFP, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said the outbreak posed minimal risk to the general public.“This is a dangerous virus, but only to the person who's really infected, and the risk to the general population remains absolutely low,” Lindmeier said during a briefing in Geneva.WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said the organisation assessed the public health risk as low, though more cases could emerge because of the virus’s incubation period.The Dutch-flagged cruise ship carrying more than 140 passengers and crew is headed to the Canary Islands, where Spanish authorities are preparing isolated evacuation procedures.At least three passengers have died and several others have fallen ill.Dr Kumar explained that hantaviruses are mainly transmitted through contact with infected rodents or their saliva, urine and faeces.“People usually get infected by inhaling aerosolised virus particles from rodent urine, droppings, or saliva in closed or poorly ventilated spaces such as warehouses, ships, barns and storage areas,” he said.He added that person-to-person transmission is “extremely uncommon”, noting that only limited transmission had been documented in certain South American strains such as the Andes virus.Public health experts say symptoms can initially resemble influenza, dengue or severe respiratory illness, making diagnosis difficult in the early stages.Kumar said India has sufficient laboratory infrastructure to detect suspected hantavirus cases through the ICMR-NIV and the nationwide Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratory Network.“India has diagnostic capacity for hantavirus infection through the ICMR-National Institute of Virology and the nationwide Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratory Network of 165 labs,” he said.He said symptoms generally appear one to five weeks after exposure and include fever, severe body ache, headache, fatigue, nausea, abdominal pain and dry cough.Severe cases may involve breathing difficulties, low blood pressure and kidney complications.Health authorities across multiple countries are tracing passengers who disembarked before the outbreak was confirmed.The WHO confirmed hantavirus in a ship passenger on May 2, nearly two weeks after the first death on board.Several countries, including the UK, South Africa and the Netherlands, are monitoring possible contacts. None of the remaining passengers or crew aboard the vessel are currently symptomatic.