Authorities around the world are racing to trace dozens of passengers who disembarked from the cruise ship at the centre of a deadly hantavirus outbreak before isolation measures were implemented.
It emerged for the first time on Thursday that at least 29 passengers of 12 nationalities left the MV Hondius on 24 April after the first fatality, prompting a scramble to identify and track their movements since then.
However, the World Health Organization ruled out any Covid-scale crisis. “This is not the start of an epidemic. This is not the start of a pandemic. This is not Covid,” Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the agency’s director for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, told reporters.
FWIW, the incubation period for Andes virus, which is the specific strain from the cruise ship, is roughly 2-3 weeks, but can be as long as 33 days in some cases.
Transmission is only possible while a person is symptomatic. COVID’s worst aspect was it was transmissible for days before a person would present with symptoms.
The first death already occurred before they were allowed to leave the ship, because:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Hondius_hantavirus_outbreak#6_April_–_5_May
Idk what kind of symptoms you get with this virus but kinda wild that they just attributed it to natural causes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthohantavirus
Dying from something with flu like symptoms is not normal (even at 70) so this should have rung alarm bells.
And even then, it’s only rarely contracted from human-to-human contact, mostly only happens when in very close contact with someone with it for a long period of time (like on this small ship)