Hantavirus may've spread to remote island

AMSTERDAM: Health experts raced to contain a potential spread of hantavirus as two suspected cases emerged on Friday far from the luxury cruise liner where the outbreak started.

The latest reports involved a man who fell ill after leaving the ship and a woman who became sick after sitting near an infected cruise passenger on a plane.

The occurrences reported by health officials thousands of miles apart - one in Spain, the other on the remote South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha - are separate from WHO's tally of eight people who became ill aboard the Dutch-flagged ship, MV Hondius. Three of those people have died.

Four patients remained hospitalised on Friday in South Africa, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

The Hondius is en route to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, and expected to dock there early on Sunday.

The head of WHO sought on Saturday to reassure worried residents they were not in danger. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, along with Spain health minister Monica Garcia and interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska were to head to the island to coordinate disembarkation.

"I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word 'outbreak' and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment," Tedros said. "But I need you to hear me clearly: This is not another Covid. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low."

Passengers and crew will be screened before disembarking under guidelines being finalised by WHO and other agencies. agencies