Hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship not start of pandemic, UN health agency says.An outbreak of hantavirus on board a cruise ship is not the start of a pandemic, the UN health agency has said.

Maria van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the World Health Organization (WHO), told a news briefing that it was not the same situation as six years ago with Covid-19, because hantavirus spreads through “close, intimate contact”.

Health authorities are racing to trace dozens of people who have recently disembarked from the Dutch vessel MV Hondius.
About 150 passengers and crew from 28 countries are reported to have initially been aboard the vessel, but dozens disembarked on the island of St Helena on 24 April.

How worried should we be about hantavirus?
At Thursday’s news briefing, van Kerkhove said “this is not Covid, this is not influenza, it spreads very, very differently”.

She said authorities had asked “everyone to wear a mask” on board the MV Hondius.