Hantavirus is a disease typically spread by infected rats. So far, there have been five confirmed and three suspected cases of the Andes hantavirus subtype linked to the cruise ship. It is the only variant known to have spread among humans.<\/p>\n
It is transmitted through virus-contaminated aerosols from the droppings, urine or saliva of infected rats. Transmission between humans usually occurs through close, prolonged contact, such as between household members or intimate partners. <\/p>\n
WHO does not anticipate a \u201clarge epidemic\u201d if lessons from previous outbreaks are followed, including the isolation of confirmed cases and active monitoring of close contacts, Abdi Rahman Mahamud, WHO emergency alert and response director, said. It was up to each country how to implement these measures, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not Covid, this is not influenza, it spreads very differently,\u201d Van Kerkhove added. It can take up to six weeks for symptoms to appear, meaning there could be more cases reported, she added. <\/p>\n
Ahead of a health security meeting of Europe’s health ministries and disease agencies on Thursday, a European Commission spokesperson told POLITICO the risk to the general public is low and that \u201csafeguarding public health remains the absolute priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are remaining vigilant, closely monitoring the situation, and working in close coordination with all affected Member State authorities, WHO, and [the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control], to ensure a swift and effective response at every stage,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Further discussions will take place Friday to “define quarantine protocols and guidelines,” the spokesperson confirmed after the meeting. The Commission, Spain and the Netherlands will also participate in a meeting of the Global Health Security Initiative to coordinate with G7 members who have citizens on the boat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hantavirus is a disease typically spread by infected rats. So far, there have been five confirmed and three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[10105,2000,299,5187,81183,6552,678,5338,2341,1093,104,108956],"class_list":["post-944435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-argentina","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-global-health","tag-infectious-diseases","tag-ireland","tag-pedro-sanchez","tag-prevention","tag-public-health","tag-spain","tag-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116534945012157928","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=944435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}