On the 2nd, the World Health Organization declared the hantavirus outbreak linked to the cruise ship “Hondius” over, after the last close contact had completed quarantine and tested negative for the virus.

World Health Organization Director-General Tan Desai (first from right) Source: Xinhua News Agency

WHO Director-General Tan Desai informed at a press conference that day, "Today, the last hantavirus close contact on the cruise ship" Hondius "ended the quarantine, and the virus test result was negative and has returned home." There have been no new cases since May 25, and WHO believes that the current round of hantavirus epidemic is over.

Tan Desai said there were 13 confirmed cases in the current round of the epidemic, including three deaths. Health authorities in 33 countries and territories identified and tracked down more than 650 close contact.

The "Hondius" cruise ship confirmed the death of Hantavirus infection in early May, causing public concern. The cruise ship is Dutch and departed from Ushuaia, the southernmost tip of Argentina, via Antarctica and other places on April 1. It was originally planned to cross the Atlantic Ocean to the Canary Islands, a Spanish overseas territory on the west coast of Morocco. The passengers and crew on the cruise ship came from 23 different countries, mainly Europe and the United States.

Earlier, the Argentine Ministry of Health said on June 12 that a team of experts from the Carlos Malvran Institute of the Argentine National Laboratory and Health Institute and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a hantavirus investigation in Mendosa Province. The team set up traps to catch rodents such as long-tailed pygmy rice rats to confirm the spread of hantavirus here, but there was no harvest, further evidence that the first infection on the cruise ship was not infected in Argentina.

The WHO also speculated that some passengers may have been infected before boarding the cruise ship. The organization was told that there were no rats on the cruise ship. The Ministry of Health of the province of Fuego, where Ushuaia is located, also stated that the province has never reported a case of hantanvirus.

Hantavirus infection is globally distributed. There are about 200000 infections in the world every year. 200-300 cases are reported in the Americas every year. The overall incidence is slowly increasing. The mortality rate of this epidemic is 32.7, which is much higher than the conventional epidemic level.