WHO declares cruise ship hantavirus outbreak over

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday declared an end to the deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship which sparked international alarm, after the last person left quarantine.

There were 12 confirmed and one probable case stemming from the MV Hondius, including three deaths.

But while the outbreak is now over, for scientists and experts, the work is only in its early stages, as they try to learn lessons from the episode that triggered a global health alert.

“Today, the final contact of a person exposed to hantavirus on the cruise ship MV Hondius completed their quarantine period, tested negative and returned home,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference.

“No further cases have been reported since May 25.

“We are therefore very pleased to say that WHO considers the outbreak of hantavirus over.”

The Dutch-flagged ship set off April 1 from Ushuaia, Argentina, taking in remote islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, including Tristan da Cunha, before heading north to Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands, where remaining passengers were evacuated.

The polar exploration ship finally docked on May 18 in Rotterdam harbour in the Netherlands. On May 30, the ship was cleared to put to sea again after cleaning and disinfection.

– Quest for future vaccines –

Tedros said more than 650 contacts were identified and followed up by health authorities in 33 countries and territories.

He said the WHO would continue working to understand the outbreak, and the virus itself.

Read more: Dutch health officials clear hantavirus ship to sail again

“We are also coordinating a study involving 21 countries to understand how the disease develops, which will support the development of diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines for future outbreaks,” Tedros said.

Spread by rodents, hantavirus is a rare virus for which no vaccines or specific treatments exist. The Andes species behind the Hondius outbreak is the only strain of hantavirus known to be able to jump from human to human.

It had been thought that a passenger on the ship caught the virus while travelling in regions of Argentina where it is endemic.

However the country’s health ministry announced in June that an investigation in a second Argentine province had failed to find any virus-carrying rodents.

Diana Rojas Alvarez, the WHO’s high impact epidemics chief said the Hondius outbreak could be declared over as it was no longer a public health risk.

“However, Andes virus and other hantaviruses are still a public health threat for South America and some other endemic areas,” she said.

Experts need to keep monitoring such viruses and preparing for further spread, and involve local communities in preparedness and prevention.

“The work on hantaviruses needs to continue over time,” she said. The WHO hoped the episode might spur its member states into finally completing the missing part of the Pandemic Agreement later this month, so it may finally become operational.