The World Health Organization insisted on Thursday that a deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship in the Atlantic did not mark the beginning of a Covid-like crisis.
“This is not the start of an epidemic. This is not the start of a pandemic,” WHO epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director Maria Van Kerkhove told reporters, insisting: “This is not Covid.”
The WHO also said it expected the outbreak on the MV Hondius, currently sailing from Cape Verde to the Spanish island of Tenerife, to be limited, so long as public health measures were properly implemented.
“So far, eight cases have been reported, including three deaths. Five of the eight cases have been confirmed as hantavirus and the other three are suspected,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
“The species of hantavirus involved in this case is the Andes virus, which is found in Latin America,” he told journalists in Geneva.
“Given the incubation period of the Andes virus, which can be up to six weeks, it’s possible that more cases may be reported,” he added.
