As more than 140 passengers and crew members prepare to disembark from a cruise ship where a deadly hantavirus outbreak killed three people and sickened others, countries around the world are mobilizing to prevent further spread through coordinated public health responses.
Contact tracing efforts have begun for at least two dozen people from 12 different countries who disembarked the ship early, including two residents of Ontario, who returned home from the ship on April 25. According to doctors the two passengers remain asymptomatic, posing no risk to the general public.
As the MV Hondius heads to the Canary Islands this weekend, health authorities say they are preparing to monitor the potential symptoms of passengers.
Experts say hantavirus and COVID-19 are not similar in how they behave.
When asked about the parallels that the public is drawing between the coronavirus outbreak and hantavirus, president and medical director of the Vancouver Infectious Diseases Centre Dr. Brian Conway said, “This is a virus that is known, it’s identified, mode of transmission is identified and person-to-person spread is terribly infrequent.”
Conway said, “It’s highly likely that this will be a very self-limited outbreak.”
He also said we should keep an eye out for what is happening but added there are “no great concerns at this point to be had.”