A total of 10 cases of hantavirus have been reported to the World Health Organization in connection with the deadly outbreak that killed three passengers on the MV Hondius cruise ship, the organization's director-general shared in an update Friday.
“As of today, a total of 10 cases, including three deaths, have been reported to WHO, including eight people who were laboratory confirmed for Andes virus infection and two probable," WHO's Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a press conference on May 15.
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, director of the WHO's Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Management, explained this new total, down from an earlier reported 11 cases, is due to new information on an American who had a previously inconclusive test.
"Since then, we've had further confirmation from the United States that that person was negative, so we've changed the case count from 11 to 10," she said.
In the United States, a total of 41 people are under monitoring for hantavirus, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said during a May 14 briefing.
