Amid the ongoing hantavirus outbreak, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addressed Tenerife residents on Saturday (local time) as a Dutch-flagged cruise ship prepares to disembark exposed passengers in Tenerife.
In a rather lengthy post on X, the WHO director-general addressed the concerns, writing: “I know you’re worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak or epidemic’ and see a ship approaching your shores, it brings back memories that none of us have quite gotten over. The pain of 2020 is still real and I will not minimize it for a moment.”
“This is not another COVID-19”: WHO chief
Tedros noted that this is not another COVID-19. He added: “The current risk of hantavirus to public health remains low. My colleagues and I have made this clear and I will repeat it now. The virus on board the MV Hondius is the Andes strain of hantavirus. It is serious. Three people have lost their lives and our hearts go out to their families. The risk to you, in your daily life in Tenerife, is low.”
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Anger, frustration on Tenerife as hantavirus ship arrives on island
His remarks come after the WHO confirmed an outbreak of hantavirus on a Dutch-flagged cruise ship that has caused nine confirmed or suspected cases, including three deaths. The ship will disembark on the Spanish island of Tenerife this weekend after Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government reached an agreement with the WHO. The vessel arrived from Cape Verde, where three people were evacuated due to illness.
According to a BBC report, on Friday dockworkers in Tenerife rallied outside the Canary Islands’ parliament building in the town of Santa Cruz to express concerns that the early arrival could pose a health risk to them.
There are no symptomatic passengers on board: Tedros
In his post, which addressed the concerns of the people of Tenerife, Tedros noted that there are currently no passengers on board with symptoms and that a WHO expert is also available on the ship along with medical supplies.
He added that the Spanish authorities have prepared a careful and detailed plan for the disembarkation of the passengers, who will be moved ashore at the industrial port of Granadilla, outside residential areas, in sealed and guarded vehicles, through a fully closed corridor and repatriated directly to their countries of origin. “You will have no contact with them, and neither will your families,” he claimed.
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The WHO Director-General went on to say that he would visit Tenerife to see the operation first hand. He said he would travel “to stand alongside the medics, port staff and officials who are carrying this out, and to pay my personal tribute to an island that has responded to a difficult situation with dignity, solidarity and compassion. Your humanity deserves to be witnessed, not just recognized from afar.”
Hantavirus outbreak
Hantavirus is usually spread through contact with rodents or their urine, saliva or droppings, but the WHO said that although it is rare, the Andes strain of the virus can spread between people. According to a CBS News report, the WHO believes the virus was transmitted from person to person on the affected ship, which was on a weeklong polar voyage from Argentina to Antarctica and several isolated islands in the South Atlantic. When people catch the virus, it has a fatality rate of up to 50 percent.
WHO warns 12 countries in the middle of an epidemic
The World Health Organization (WHO) said 12 countries were directly or indirectly involved in the response effort to the hantavirus outbreak. Some nations are involved because passengers boarded the affected cruise ship or requested medical evacuation, while others were alerted after their nationals were identified among passengers or transit passengers. Countries notified to WHO include Canada, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States of America.
Key things
- An outbreak of Hantavir linked to a cruise ship has resulted in nine confirmed or suspected cases.
- WHO assesses the risk to the general public in Tenerife as low.
- WHO is coordinating an international response involving 12 countries.
