who praises tenerife hantavirus response

WHO praises Tenerife and Spain for hantavirus outbreak response

WHO director praises Tenerife and Spain for hantavirus response

The Director General of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said this Friday that he hopes the world will take inspiration from the example of Tenerife and the Spanish people in response to the hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship. He made the comments particularly at a time when divisions and tensions are prevalent in many places and situations.

MV Hondius en route to Netherlands with 27 on board

The cruise ship MV Hondius is due to arrive in the Netherlands on Monday with 27 people on board, including a doctor and a nurse from the WHO. The ship’s captain has confirmed to the organisation that, so far, no one is showing symptoms of the infection. The number of cases has been updated to ten — one fewer than reported the day before — after several tests confirmed that a suspected case in the United States was negative. Of those ten cases, eight have been confirmed through laboratory testing and two are still considered probable cases.

Long incubation period means further cases possible

Tedros noted that, given the long incubation period of hantavirus — up to six weeks — further cases may still appear in the coming days as the quarantine of passengers and crew who have returned to their home countries (or will do so shortly) progresses. “This would not mean the outbreak is spreading, but rather that control measures are taking effect, that laboratory testing is continuing, and that people are receiving care with the support of their governments,” Tedros explained.

Precautionary approach for all high-risk contacts

The WHO’s Director for Pandemic and Epidemic Prevention, Maria Van Kerkhove, noted that every person who was on the ship is considered a high-risk contact of the positive cases that were on board — and that these account for all cases detected so far. “This is simply because we do not yet have all the answers. That is why we are taking a precautionary approach, working on the assumption that there may have been more cases on board, and that is why the quarantine measures are so strict for those who have already left the ship,” she explained.

42-day quarantine recommended for all exposed

The WHO’s recommendation to national authorities is that these individuals must remain in quarantine for 42 days from their last possible contact with the virus, whether at home or in a specialised facility. “We have the 42-day period because of the long incubation period, which means that people could be in the incubation phase, could be infected and not know it, could test negative, and could not develop symptoms until the very last day,” she detailed.

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