Health officials in Paris say French woman who contracted disease on MV Hondius is on ventilator in intensive care

The head of the World Health Organization has warned countries to prepare for more hantavirus cases after the outbreak onboard the MV Hondius, and thanked Spain for the “compassion and solidarity” it had shown by taking in the stricken cruise ship and evacuating its passengers and crew.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to follow the WHO’s advice and recommendations, which include a 42-day quarantine and constant monitoring of high-risk contacts.

“At the moment, there is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak, but of course the situation could change and, given the long incubation period of the virus, it’s possible we might see more cases in the coming weeks,” he told a press conference in Madrid on Tuesday.

  • BrightCandle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    11 hours ago

    If we avoid a bigger outbreak of this it will be luck not because we actually did this right. I am not convinced we should have been taking these exposed people and spreading across the globe and certainly not with very different procedures, only some countries are actually quarantining those who have been exposed. It could still be in the community from one of the people exposed on the plane. Given how slowly this virus progresses it could smoulder for quite a while before we have an epidemic that we recognise.

    I really wish the WHO would get over its aversion to saying viral spread is airborne, they still haven’t admitted Covid is airborne despite the scientists proving it is and they have called Hantavirus “close contact”, which isn’t actually a transmission mechanism its either droplet or aerosol and given the exposures where its spread its airborne.