Metro<\/a>, the director general of the World Health Organization has cautioned that further infections from the rodent-borne hantavirus are likely in the near term, even as officials stress there are no indications of a broader pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addressed the situation during a press conference in Madrid, following an outbreak traced to the MV Hondius cruise ship that departed from Argentina on April 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three passengers have died from the rare but potentially fatal disease, which spreads primarily through contact with infected rodents\u2019 urine, feces, or saliva.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The WHO leader acknowledged the severity for those affected while emphasizing measured response efforts. \u201cOf course, the situation could change,\u201d Tedros said. \u201cAnd given the long incubation period of the virus, it\u2019s possible we might see more cases in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least 85 guests and 35 crew members were evacuated from the vessel, according to tour operator Oceanwide Expeditions. Additional passengers and crew have fallen ill or tested positive, including individuals from the US and France. Passengers faced what Tedros described as \u201ca very frightening situation,\u201d with some experiencing significant mental distress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome of the passengers were facing mental breakdown,\u201d he added. \u201cThey have the right to be treated with dignity and compassion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Evacuees were flown from Tenerife in Spain\u2019s Canary Islands to their home countries over the weekend. Authorities have advised self-isolation for 42 days, with active symptom monitoring recommended globally. The ship is expected to reach Rotterdam in the Netherlands soon for disinfection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tedros praised Spain\u2019s response and urged other governments to extend similar support, noting the low risk to local populations and the global community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Andes strain involved is endemic to parts of South America and is the only known hantavirus variant capable of limited human-to-human transmission, though such cases remain uncommon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Colin Ambler\/cvnznews.com According to a report from Metro, the director general of the World Health Organization has cautioned that further infections from the rodent-borne hantavirus are likely in the near term, even as officials stress there are no indications of a broader pandemic. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addressed the situation during a press conference in Madrid,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[43],"tags":[1109,928],"coauthors":[446],"class_list":{"0":"post-13051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-2","8":"tag-hantavirus","9":"tag-who"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/TEdros.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13053,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13051\/revisions\/13053"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13051"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=13051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}