The Hantavirus outbreak that broke out on the MV Hondius cruise ship, off the coast of Cape Verde, has rekindled fears linked to the Covid-19 years, including lockdowns, Prime Ministerial Decrees and masks.
But reassuring messages are arriving from international experts: in short, there are no elements to talk about a new global pandemic. In the meantime, the vessel has reached the port of Tenerife and the local health authorities have managed a practically armored disembarkation.
Hantavirus, no pandemic risk
Those who curbed fears were members of the WHO, such as the epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove and the senior official Abdirahman Sheikh Mahamud.
Their voices were then also added to that of Drew Weissman, the immunologist who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2023 for his contribution to the development of vaccines against the Covid-19 pandemic. The luminary, reached by The Pressexpressed himself in these terms:
Hantavirus has been around for a long time, actually. And it is true that contagion occurs from man to man. However, there is a difference compared to Covid: Hantavirus does not spread so quickly, on the contrary, transmission is much weaker.
And again:
We are not on the brink of a new pandemic, but this does not mean we should let our guard down.
Hantavirus vaccines in ten months
Vaccines against Hantaviruses are on the way but, Drew Weissman explained, it will take time:
They are already in the laboratories, only it takes nine or ten months for them to be accessible. We are working on all viruses potentially responsible for pandemics, but it takes technical time to put these technologies on the market. Even with Covid we had them ready beforehand.
Moderna and the Hantavirus vaccine
The search for vaccines against Hantaviruses began at least thirty years ago. Among the pharmaceutical industries involved in development there is also Moderna, a company known to the general public because it participated in the administration of anti-Covid vaccines. Moderna is also in the race for the anti-Hantavirus vaccine. Moderna shares, after the announcement, jumped by more than +19% on the Italian Stock Exchange.
Hantaviruses belong to a family of viruses spread mainly by rodents, and are occasionally transmitted to humans. This is why we speak, in journalistic jargon, of the “mouse virus”. Passage to humans generally occurs through contact with contaminated particles from the urine, saliva or feces of infected animals.
The disembarkation of the passengers from the MV Hondius took place in a practically armored manner on May 10th. The cruise ship left South America on April 1st bound for Cape Verde. Five days later, a 70-year-old Dutch man began to show the first symptoms: fever, headache and mild diarrhea. The man died five days later. On April 24, 29 passengers were disembarked. On April 26, the wife of the first victim died. On April 27, another British passenger was hospitalized in South Africa. Day 28 a German woman died on board. On May 2nd the confirmation arrived: it was Hantavirus. Many passengers, meanwhile, had already disembarked.
The toll is 3 dead and 5 infected. The WHO has asked Spain to take charge of the final disembarkation in Tenerife of 149 people of 23 nationalities. There are also 4 Italians in fiduciary quarantine, who are fine.
