Overview
- The outbreak linked to the cruise ship MV Hondius totals 13 confirmed cases including three deaths and more than 650 identified contacts with 54 people still under quarantine expected to finish by July 2.
- The WHO announced it will consider the outbreak over on July 2 if no new cases are reported and said investigations that began after the first symptomatic passenger died about a week into the voyage that departed Ushuaia on April 1 will continue.
- WHO is coordinating environmental sampling on the ship, a multinational study of exposed people from more than 21 countries, and the transfer of a virus sample to the WHO Biosecurity Centre in Switzerland to support standardized diagnostics, therapies and vaccine research.
- Spain’s Health Ministry published a final national report this week declaring its domestic crisis over after discharging the two infected passengers and completing a 42‑day quarantine for twelve ship contacts with negative results for the last tracked cases.
- The virus is the Andes South variant, the only hantavirus known to spread between people, and Argentina’s prior experience with outbreaks and the Malbrán Institute’s shipment of supplies for about 2,500 diagnostic tests to multiple countries are guiding the public‑health response and lab capacity building.