90-Second Read: Where did the Hantavirus outbreak start, and where has it spread?

The US and France are the latest to confirm Hantavirus cases as evacuations from a cruise ship are under way. As passengers are being flown home for testing and monitoring, health officials are racing to determine where and how the outbreak may have started. However, local health officials in Ushuaia said this is unlikely, telling reporters that the area has not recorded a Hantavirus case since 1996. A United States citizen who was on the Hantavirus-hit MV Hondius cruise ship is the latest to test positive for the virus while a French traveller has developed symptoms as the ship is being evacuated and passengers are returning to their home countries.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was present to oversee the process and to reiterate that people on Tenerife as well as the general public were at low risk of contracting Hantavirus. At least 34 passengers and crew had already disembarked from the ship by May 2, the day the WHO first received reports of an outbreak of severe respiratory illnesses on the ship as it was docked off Cape Verde. Health officials are currently tracing the outbreak in Argentina, from which the ship departed. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's top epidemiologist, said at a news conference on Saturday that the agency recommended to all governments involved that passengers be tested and monitored for at least 42 days after suspected exposure to the virus.

At least one of the 17 American passengers evacuated has tested positive for the virus but was not showing symptoms, US health officials said. Last week, Argentinian health officials were deployed to the site with plans to take samples of rats in the area of the landfill and examine them for Hantavirus. The last similar transmission of the Hantavirus from human to human was recorded in Chile in 2019, authorities added. Uruguay's Ministry of Public Health said last week that there is no risk of transmission associated with the couple in the country as their symptoms began several days after they left the country, meaning they were not symptomatic during their stay in Uruguay.

There is now a concern that the outbreak could reduce tourist numbers. Hantavirus is endemic across most of Chile except in the country's far north. French Health Minister Stephanie Rist revealed on Sunday that one of five French passengers had developed symptoms on a flight home to France on Sunday.