90-Second Read: Everyone on Hantavirus-hit ship 'high-risk contact', must be monitored: WHO

The World Health Organization said Saturday it considered everyone on board a cruise ship hit with a deadly Hantavirus outbreak as "high-risk" contacts who should be actively monitored for 42 days. The only Hantavirus type that can transmit from person to person, the Andes virus, has been confirmed among the six cases who have tested positive, fueling international concern. Everyone coming off the ship would meanwhile need to be monitored for 42 days, starting from their last point of exposure with a confirmed or suspected Hantavirus case, she said.

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. There are nearly 150 people on board the MV Hondius at the center of the outbreak that has killed three people, which is heading toward the waters off Tenerife. Currently, "there's nobody on board that has any symptoms," she said, adding though that "active monitoring and follow-up of all the passengers and crew who disembark for a 42-day period" was recommended.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is heading to Tenerife to help coordinate the evacuation. Van Kerkhove said the United Nations health agency was coordinating with member states, in particular Spain and the Netherlands, the ship's operator, and experts around the world on the best way forward. That means, she said, "the clock has already started ticking." Master's in physics with research experience.