The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends 42 days of quarantine for anyone who was on a ship affected by a hantavirus outbreak, but each country is free to make a decision, the director-general of the UN agency said today.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the WHO has already issued a recommendation of 42 days of quarantine, “with active monitoring”at home or in a health unit, for crew and passengers of the “MV Hondius” after leaving the ship.
It’s “clear advice”, but the WHO “advises countries, not imposes”and each country will adopt the protocols it deems most pertinent, he stressed.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus admitted that “there are risks” if quarantines are not carried out, but insisted that the WHO does not force any country to follow “a proposal”.
Countries such as Spain, the United Kingdom or France announced that their citizens who were on the cruise will undergo quarantine, while others, such as the United States, admitted that they did not adopt this type of measure.
According to the Spanish Government, 94 people of 19 nationalities were removed from the “MV Hondius” and transported on eight flights, from Tenerife South airport, to their countries of origin or residence.
On Monday, 24 people will also be disembarked and repatriated to Australia and the Netherlands.
The boat, with part of the crew on board, which will not disembark in the Canary Islands, will then proceed to the Netherlands, where the cruise is registered and where the shipowner is from.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and the Spanish Minister of Health, Mónica Garcia, confirmed that a French citizen presented symptoms of illness (cough) on the flight between Tenerife and the country, therefore being a suspected case at the momentwith France applying the national protocol it adopted for this hantavirus case.
The ship was traveling from Argentina, through the South Atlantic, and raised an international health alert last weekend.
Hantavirus is generally transmitted from infected rodents. The variant detected in the package, the Andes hantavirus, is rare and can be transmitted from person to person.
Symptoms of hantavirus infection are initially flu-like symptoms, such as coughing, fatigue or headaches and muscle aches.
Depending on the strain, hantavirus can cause a lung or kidney infection.
The WHO guarantees that the risk of this outbreak for the general population is low.
