Deadly Hantavirus outbreak should end on 2 July, WHO says

The Hantavirus outbreak that made global headlines last month should formally end on 2 July, the World Health Organization has announced.

Speaking at a press conference in Geneva on Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the number of cases of Hantavirus remained at 13, including three deaths.

• More than 650 contacts have been identified across 33 countries and territories since the outbreak was reported to the WHO on 2 May.

"All but 54 contacts have completed their period of quarantine, and the remaining contacts are scheduled to complete their quarantine period by 2 July," Ghebreyesus said.

If there are no further reported cases by that date, the WHO will consider the outbreak to have ended, he added.

The Hantavirus outbreak sparked international concern after a group of passengers travelling on board a Dutch-flagged cruise ship reported severe respiratory illnesses.

The MV Hondius ship had departed Ushuaia, Argentina on 1 April and visited locations across the South Atlantic, including South Georgia, Tristan da Cunha, Saint Helena, and Ascension Island.

One passenger fell ill and died on 11 April. His body was removed from the ship to Saint Helena, where some passengers disembarked. A female passenger who went ashore at Saint Helena died on 26 April after arriving in South Africa. Another female passenger then died on 2 May.

Remaining passengers were later evacuated in Tenerife.

Passengers are sprayed with disinfectant by Spanish government officials before boarding a plane after disembarking from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius. (Passengers are sprayed with disinfectant by Spanish government officials before boarding a plane after disembarking from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius.)

The WHO says it will continue working with local authorities to investigate the causes and spread of the outbreak.

"We are also working on having a sample of the virus shared with the WHO BioHub in Switzerland," Ghebreyesus said. "This will be important for developing diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines for future outbreaks."

• Hantaviruses are a group of viruses carried by rodents. They are usually spread to humans through contact with infected rodents or their urine, droppings or saliva. The viruses can cause severe and sometimes deadly disease.
• The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that all US citizens potentially exposed to the virus while travelling on the MV Hondius had finished their 42-day monitoring period on June 21.
• "No cases of hantavirus disease occurred in the United States as a result of this outbreak," the CDC said.