90-Second Read: WHO chief says Hantavirus ‘situation is stable for now’

WHO chief provides update on Hantavirus outbreak linked to South Atlantic cruise ship. World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Sunday said the Hantavirus "situation is stable for now." Tedros provided an update stating that WHO has reported 12 cases of Hantavirus and three deaths, with no other confirmed deaths since May 2. Seventeen Americans and one British national exposed to Hantavirus on the cruise ship were quarantined either in Nebraska or Georgia while health officials monitored them for symptoms.

The outbreak is believed to have originated from South America after infected travelers boarded the cruise ship MV Hondius earlier this month. The couple, along with a German national, contracted the Andes strain and died. Argentinian health officials said a team of scientific experts would be dispatched to investigate the origin of the outbreak, as the MV Hondius departed the country on April 1, the Associated Press previously reported.

Most have not shown symptoms of Hantavirus, though one person tested positive without being symptomatic, while another had mild symptoms but did not test positive. But an outbreak of the Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease, in which there are more than 500 suspected cases in the Congo alone, prompted the WHO to declare the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.