The World Health Organisation has insisted a current outbreak of a deadly contagious disease onboard a cruise ship is not the start of another covid-style pandemic. Five cases of potentially lethalhantavirushave now been confirmed on a cruise liner heading towards theCanary Islandson which three travellers have already died. TheMV Hondiushas now left Cape Verde after several days of medical evacuations and is now expected to reachTenerifethis weekend despite clear opposition from the Canary Islands' government, who insists it has not been given enough information on the disease to make any decisions on public health.
Three people have died on board or after travelling onboard the ship which left Argentina about a month ago. Two Brits who left the ship at Saint Helena in April have gone back to the UK and are now self-isolating. It was confirmed on Thursday that a total of seven British nationals had left the cruise early. They are currently being contact traced.
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Nearly 150 passengers are still stuck on the ship, confined to their cabins. Authorities have confirmed all those onboard are currently asymptomatic.
Speaking at a hastily arranged WHO press conference, infectious disease epidemiologist Maria van Kerkhove stressed the current outbreak, though alarming, should not be compared to the beginning of 2020’scoronaviruslockdowns.
She said: "I want to be unequivocal here. This is not SARS-CoV-2. This is not the start of aCovidpandemic. This is an outbreak that we see on a ship."
Cruise travelis highly sensitive to perceptions of onboard health risks, especially after Covid-19, and many concerned travellers have taken to social media vowing to stop cruising holidays in the wake of the incident.
One woman shared a previously filmed video of herself aboard a cruise ship saying she was sharing the video now because she will “never go on a cruise again.” In anotherTikTokpost, a user said she would refuse to board a cruise ship even if she were paid $100,000, adding: “How many contagious viruses do we need to have on a cruise before people stop getting on the damn boat?” Another user went further, calling for cruise ships to be banned altogether.
But cruise industry expert, Stewart Chiron, also known as "The Cruise Guy", insisted: "This is a very isolated case.
Source: Daily Express :: World Feed
