Hantavirus Very Difficult To Transmit Person-to-Person – CDC

WASHINGTON, May 12 (Bernama-Sputnik/RIA Novosti) -- The Andes Virus is the only hantavirus that can be transmitted person-to-person, but this is a very difficult process, Director of the Division of Global Migration Health of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) David Fitter said, reported Sputnik/RIA Novosti.

"It is not a novel pathogen. It is very difficult to spread. This is a different strain. So we have hantavirus in the United States (US). It is a different strain of that. And this hantavirus, the Andes Virus, is the only strain that is person-to-person, but again, it is very difficult to spread: through close contact with bodily secretions, respiration, sharing things intimately, a toothbrush, etc. And so this is very different from a respiratory virus," Fitter said at a press conference.

On Monday, the US Department of Health and Human Services said that one of 17 Americans evacuated from a cruise ship where the outbreak occurred had mild symptoms of the hantavirus, and another person tested positive for the Andean variant of the virus.

NBC later reported that the plane carrying the Americans evacuated from the ship landed in Nebraska.

The University of Nebraska Medical Centre said that one person tested positive for the virus, but was not showing symptoms.

A deadly hantavirus outbreak was reported aboard the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius, which was travelling from Argentina to Cape Verde.

The World Health Organisation has confirmed seven infections, three of them fatal.

On Sunday, the MV Hondius arrived off the coast of Tenerife, Canary Islands.

Hantaviruses are a group of viruses transmitted to humans through contact with rodents.

They can cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.

-- BERNAMA-SPUTNIK/RIA NOVOSTI