Experts have so far dismissed reasons to panic over hantavirus, but the deaths caused by the aggressive Andes variant on the MV Hondius cruise ship are raising concerns.
Even though the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has classified the risk as "very low", the Council of the European Union last week activated its crisis response mechanism in information-sharing mode to actively monitor the outbreak.
Yet this is not the only measure the EU can employ: it has more tools to deal with the outbreak in case of a serious escalation.
How about hantavirus quarantine and distancing measures?
But there's an important caveat: when it comes to quarantine and prevention measures, there is no unified protocol or European playbook.
