GENEVA, May 8: The World Health Organization insisted Thursday that a deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship in the Atlantic did not mark the beginning of a Covid-like crisis.
"This is not the start of an epidemic. This is not the start of a pandemic," WHO epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director Maria Van Kerkhove told reporters, insisting: "This is not Covid."
WHO said that more cases of the hantavirus could emerge but expected the outbreak to be "limited" if precautions are taken, after the disease killed three passengers from a cruise ship.
Another sick passenger from the MV Hondius landed in Europe earlier in the day, as the vessel headed to a Spanish island and health officials scrambled to map the outbreak of the potentially deadly human-to-human strain.
The fate of the Hondius sparked international alarm after three people travelling on it died, though health officials have played down fears of a wider global outbreak from the rat-borne virus, which is less contagious than Covid-19.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in Geneva that five confirmed and three suspected cases had been reported overall, including the three deaths.
"Given the incubation period of the Andes virus, which can be up to six weeks, it's possible that more cases may be reported," he said, referring to the rare strain detected aboard the Hondius, which can be transmitted between humans.
His prediction was proved swiftly correct, with the Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands announcing later on Thursday another patient had tested positive.
But the WHO's emergency alert and response director Abdi Rahman Mahamud insisted: "We believe this will be a limited outbreak if the public health measures are implemented and solidarity shown across all countries."
People thought to have contracted the virus are being treated or isolating in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and South Africa.
"This is not the start of an epidemic. This is not the start of a pandemic," WHO epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director Maria Van Kerkhove insisted. "This is not Covid."
Cruise-like ship operated in Narayani River from today
-Rare Disease --
Hantavirus is a rare respiratory disease that is usually spread from infected rodents and can cause respiratory and cardiac distress as well as haemorrhagic fevers.
There are no vaccines and no known cure for it, meaning that treatment consists solely of attempting to relieve the symptoms.
A passenger is thought to have contracted the virus before boarding the ship in Argentina and eventually infected others on board as it sailed across the Atlantic.
Three evacuees were whisked away from the ship on Wednesday and a fourth landed on Thursday in Amsterdam, said the vessel's operator, Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions.
"No symptomatic individuals are present on board" the ship at the moment, as it sails toward the Spanish island of Tenerife, it said in a statement.
Two people who returned to the UK from the ship have been advised to self-isolate, the UK Health Security Agency said, adding they were asymptomatic and insisting the risk to the public was "very low".
Officials in Argentina said they planned to test rodents in the coastal city of Ushuaia, from where the ship had set sail on April 1.
--First Case--
A Dutch man who had boarded in Ushuaia along with his wife died aboard the ship on April 11.
The man's body was taken off the ship on April 24 in Saint Helena, an island in the south Atlantic where 29 other passengers disembarked, the ship's operator said.
"These guests have all been contacted by Oceanwide Expeditions. We are working to establish details of all passengers and crew who embarked and disembarked on various stops of Hondius since March 20," it said.
Ghebreyesus said it had informed 12 countries that its nationals disembarked from the cruise ship on Saint Helena.
Alarm was raised when the deceased man's wife -- who left the ship to accompany his body to South Africa -- died there 15 days later after also falling ill, with hantavirus confirmed as the cause on May 4.
The couple had visited Chile, Uruguay and Argentina before the cruise, Argentine officials said.
The Dutch woman had flown on a commercial plane from the island of Saint Helena to Johannesburg while she was showing symptoms.
Officials were trying to trace people on that flight, which South African-based carrier Airlink said was carrying 82 passengers and six crew.
A German passenger died on May 2. Her body remains on the ship.
--Hantavirus not like Covid: Doctor treating patient in Netherlands--
The hantavirus that has broken out on the cruise ship MV Hondius is much less transmissible than Covid, the head of the Dutch unit treating one of the patients told AFP Thursday.
In an exclusive interview with AFPTV, Karin Ellen Veldkamp, head of infectious diseases at Leiden University Medical Centre, said her unit was ready to receive more patients if required.
Asked about fears the hantavirus could be the new Covid, Veldkamp said: "No, it is not like that. It is not easily transmissible from person to person."
"We know (person-to-person transmission) is possible and we suspect that has happened on the boat... but it is not like Covid, (transmission) is much more difficult," she added.
Veldkamp declined to give precise details about the patient that arrived at the hospital on Wednesday night, but said the hospital was well equipped for such cases.
Patients are kept in an isolation room, cared for by well-trained staff and strict disease control protocols, she explained.
"Our principle is that we simply care good care of the patient. We don't refuse to go in (to the isolation room). We are just well trained to do that in a safe way," said Veldkamp.
In general, patients are kept in isolation as long as they show symptoms, she said. When they are feeling better, they are tested and if the test is negative, isolation can be lifted.
"We do not know exactly how long someone can carry the virus. But we assume that once someone is feeling better, they are no longer contagious," she said.
The unit in Leiden is used to treating patients with similar communicable diseases, said the doctor, adding that more places were available in the event of an outbreak.
"And there are several hospitals in the Netherlands that can do this, so we can share out the burden a bit," she said.
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