How Big Could The Hantavirus Outbreak Get?
Experts from the World Health Organization have said they expect spread of a deadly and rare hantavirus variant to be “limited” and are insisting a cruise ship outbreak that has killed three people is “not the start of a pandemic”—as British authorities confirm another suspected case linked to the ship. (See the latest hantavirus cruise updates here). ANP/AFP via Getty Images Key Facts WHO officials have said the Andes variant of the hantavirus, which has sickened at least nine people with two more suspected cases discovered Friday, will not cause a global outbreak on the scale of the coronavirus because it spreads very differently. This particular strain of the disease, the only one known to be spread person-to-person, requires sustained, close contact to be transmitted, the WHO has said, suggesting casual encounters are extremely unlikely to result in further infections. Officials are racing to trace the close contacts of more than two dozen people who disembarked from the cruise ship in the middle of its excursion—before they knew theyd been exposed to a deadly disease—including Americans from Georgia, Arizona, Texas, Virginia and California. None of the Americans have shown symptoms, various state health agencies reported, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said “the