The head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that a deadly hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship does not resemble the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, after news has sparked international alarm.
The MV Hondius cruise ship has been at the center of an international alert since Saturday, when the World Health Organization was informed that three passengers had died amid suspicions of a hantavirus outbreak aboard.
The rare disease is usually spread from infected rodents, typically through urine, droppings and saliva, but the Andes strain, which has now been confirmed in three cases, is transmissible between humans.
Speaking to AFP at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, the U.N. health agency's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus downplayed the danger, insisting that "the risk to the rest of the world is low".
And when asked if the WHO saw similarities with the emergency at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, he said: "No, I don't think so".
