Thehantavirusbehind the deadly outbreak on a cruise ship is most infectious as soon as symptoms appear, the World Health Organization said Monday, explaining the need to quarantine contacts.
The outbreak of the rare virus on the Dutch-flagged vessel MV Hondius has claimed three lives and spurred global concern over its potential spread as evacuees head back to their countries.
“The first few moments of illness is when the infectiousness is highest,” Olivier Le Polain, who heads WHO’s epidemiology and analytics for response division, told a social media event.
The WHO has recommended that all the nearly 150 people who were onboard the ship when it arrived early Sunday in the waters off Tenerife for disembarkment be quarantined for six weeks.
That corresponds to the maximum incubation period for the Andes virus — the only hantavirus strain known to spread between humans — at the heart of the outbreak, which is around 42 days.
On average though, those infected with the virus begin developing symptoms after about three weeks, Polain said.
He stressed that it was important not to wait for symptoms to appear before isolating potential contacts.
If WHO recommends “quarantine it is because actually people areinfectiousat the very start of illness”, he said, adding that this was “also sometimes when it’s a bit difficult to recognise the symptoms”.
That is because “initial symptoms could be mild, … some fatigue, maybe mild fever”, he said adding though that those symptoms then “sometimes deteriorate”.
Polain said the hantavirus’s long incubation period “means that we can see cases again coming up in the next few days, perhaps even next week”.
Source: Insider Paper
