90-Second Read: Hantavirus crisis: WHO recommendations

A deadly Hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship has spurred global concern over the potential spread of the virus among and from ship evacuees as they head back to their home countries. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A deadly Hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship has spurred global concern over the potential spread of the virus among and from ship evacuees as they head back to their home countries. Van Kerkhove said that corresponded to the longest likely incubation period of Andes virus, the only Hantavirus strain known to spread between humans, at the heart of the outbreak. Here are the World Health Organization's main recommendations to limit the transmission risks and to better protect those exposed to the rare virus, which usually spreads.

The organization is working with "all of the countries to receive further information about any of the cases that we're following up, any of the people that might become suspect cases. But in the United States, Jay Bhattacharya, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said the 17 returning American passengers would not necessarily be quarantined. There is as of now no licensed treatment for Hantavirus, which can have a fatality rate up to 50%. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. The United Nations health agency is recommending that all of them be quarantined and kept in isolation for six weeks.

Should any early symptoms or sudden onset of respiratory distress occur, people should immediately inform health authorities and self-isolate until medical evaluation is conducted," the agency stressed. Olivier Le Polain, who heads WHO's epidemiology and analytics for response division, stressed that people are "in the first few days, in the first few moments of illness," which is why it is wise not to wait for symptoms to appear before placing a contact in isolation. Other people who had left the ship before the outbreak was understood, as well as people they come in contact with could also be considered high-risk contacts. Depending on the estimated risk, passengers can choose to go home "without exposing other people on the way," he said Sunday. Each country chooses what health protocols it wants.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who was on Tenerife to help supervise the evacuations, said that policy "may have risks." Several countries, including Germany, Britain, Switzerland and Greece, have opted for a 45-day quarantine. For the management of suspected or confirmed cases, the WHO recommends implementing additional measures, with particular precautions taken in the case of any procedures likely to generate aerosols. Australia and France, for their part, have announced minimum observation periods of three and two weeks respectively, which can then be extended.