According to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, patients are on their way to the Netherlands to receive medical care
Os three patients suspected of being diagnosed with hantavirus who were on board the cruise ship MV Hondius were removed from the ship in Cape Verde and will be transferred to the Netherlandsannounced this Wednesday (6) the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Three patients suspected of having hantavirus infection have just been removed from the ship and are on their way to receive medical care in the Netherlands, in coordination with the WHO, the ship operator and the national authorities of Cape Verde, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands”, announced Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on the social network X.
O ship has been at the center of an international health alert since Saturday (2)when it was revealed that there was suspected that hantavirusa disease transmitted by infected rodents, was behind the
Three people, including two sick crew members on a cruise ship stranded in the Atlantic due to an alleged hantavirus outbreak, were evacuated from Cape Verde, which will allow the ship to continue towards the Canary Islands.
The Dutch-flagged ship, which left on April 1st from Ushuaia, Argentina, bound for the Cape Verde archipelago, in Africa, has been anchored since Sunday in front of Praia, the country’s capital, currently with 88 passengers and 59 crew of 23 nationalities.
What is hantavirus?
According to the Ministry of Health, the which, in Brazil, manifests itself mainly in the form of Hantavirus Cardiopulmonary Syndrome (HCPS), a serious condition that can compromise the respiratory and cardiovascular system.
The virus belongs to the Hantaviridae family and its natural reservoirs are wild rodents, which eliminate the infectious agent through urine, feces and saliva without showing symptoms throughout their lives.
Transmission to humans occurs, in most cases, through inhalation of contaminated aerosols from the excreta of these animals. It can also happen through direct contact with mucous membranes. — such as eyes, mouth and nose —, due to skin injuries or rodent bites. Although rare, transmission between people has already been recorded in countries such as Argentina and Chile, associated with a specific type of virus.
