GENEVA: The captain of the cruise ship which was hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak was finally due to leave the vessel on Saturday, the WHO chief said.&nbsp;Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, has been in regular contact with captain Jan Dobrogowski, throughout the ordeal on the MV Hondius.&nbsp;The Dutch-flagged ship set off April 1 from Ushuaia, Argentina, taking in remote islands in the South Atlantic Ocean before heading north to Cape Verde, then Tenerife in Spain&#39;s Canary Islands, where remaining passengers were evacuated.&nbsp;The polar exploration ship docked in Rotterdam harbour in the Netherlands on Monday, with the skeleton crew facing weeks of quarantine.&nbsp;&quot;Just received the last message from captain Jan Dobrogowski, who is finally leaving the MV Hondius cruise ship today. He remains without hantavirus symptoms,&quot; Tedros said on X.&nbsp;He said that, so far, 12 suspected and confirmed cases have been reported to the WHO, including three deaths, adding that no deaths had been reported since May 2.&nbsp;&quot;All the passengers and crew are now in quarantine with close monitoring to receive care if need be,&quot; said Tedros.&nbsp;&quot;I&#39;m deeply grateful for Jan&rsquo;s cooperation and leadership as he navigated the ship through an extraordinary and scary journey. Thank you, dear Jan, for steering your passengers towards safety.&quot;&nbsp;A crew member who disembarked in Tenerife and was repatriated to the Netherlands was confirmed Friday as a new hantavirus case.&nbsp;The crew member had been in home quarantine and was transferred to hospital after the Andes virus was detected, said the RIVM (Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment).&nbsp;The Andes variant is the only strain of hantavirus known to be able to jump from human to human, via very close contact.&nbsp;Everyone evacuated from the ship to the Netherlands is being tested every week. The positive test was confirmed by two separate laboratories, the RIVM said.&nbsp;Tedros told a press conference on Friday that more than 600 contacts were being followed in 30 countries, while a small number of high-risk contacts were still being located.&nbsp;Spread by rodents, hantavirus is a rare virus for which no vaccines or specific treatments exist.

Europe

Captain Jan Dobrogowski of cruise ship MV Hondius is leaving after a hantavirus outbreak. There are 12 cases and 3 deaths and over 600 contacts are being tracked worldwide.

Hondius captain to leave hantavirus ship: WHO

KINSHASA: The World Health Organization declared an international health emergency on Sunday over an outbreak of an Ebola strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has killed more than 80 and for which there is no vaccine. Fears of further spread grew when a laboratory on Sunday confirmed a case in the major eastern DRC city of Goma, which is controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23 militia. A total of 88 deaths and 336 suspected cases of the highly contagious hemorrhagic fever have so far been reported, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa) said in an update Saturday. &quot;A positive case in Goma has been confirmed by tests carried out by the laboratory. It involves the wife of a man who died of Ebola in Bunia, who travelled to Goma after her husband&#39;s death whilst already infected,&quot; Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of the Congolese National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB), told AFP. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed deep disquiet as the reported cases rise. &quot;I determine that the epidemic constitutes a public health emergency of international concern,&quot; Ghebreyesus posted to X, albeit adding that as yet it &quot;does not meet the criteria of pandemic emergency.&quot; As things stand, the Geneva-based WHO has declared its second-highest level of alert &mdash; a pandemic being the highest &mdash; with the global health body warning the scale of the current outbreak remains unclear. &quot;There are significant uncertainties to the true number of infected persons and geographic spread,&quot; the WHO said. Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it was preparing a &quot;large-scale response,&quot; calling the rapid spread of the outbreak &quot;extremely concerning.&quot; DR Congo&#39;s Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said the Bundibugyo strain causing the outbreak had &quot;a very high fatality rate, which can reach 50%.&quot; Patient zero&nbsp;The strain &mdash; first identified in 2007 &mdash; has also killed a Congolese national in neighboring Uganda, officials said Saturday. Uganda on Sunday announced the postponement of the Martyrs&#39; Day pilgrimage, an annual Christian festival that normally draws thousands of worshippers from across the border in eastern Congo. Vaccines are only available for the Zaire strain, which was identified in 1976 and has a higher fatality rate of 60-90%. Health officials had confirmed the latest outbreak on Friday in Ituri province in northeastern DRC, bordering Uganda and South Sudan, according to CDC Africa. According to Kamba, patient zero was a nurse who reported to a health facility in Ituri&#39;s provincial capital, Bunia, on April 24, with symptoms suggesting Ebola. Symptoms of the disease include fever, hemorrhaging, and vomiting. Large-scale transport of medical equipment is a challenge in the DRC, a country of more than 100 million people, which is four times the size of France but has a poor communications infrastructure. High risk of spread&nbsp;It is the 17th Ebola outbreak to hit the DRC, and officials warned of a high risk of spread. With the outbreak largely concentrated in difficult-to-access areas, few samples have been lab tested. But the WHO said the high positivity rate of initial samples, the confirmation of cases in two countries, and the increasing reports of suspected cases &quot;all point towards a potentially much larger outbreak than what is currently being detected and reported, with significant local and regional risk of spread.&quot; The previous outbreak of Ebola was last August in the region, with at least 34 people dying before it was declared eradicated in December. The disease, over the past 50 years, has killed around 15,000 people in Africa, despite advances in vaccines and treatment. Nearly 2,300 people died in the deadliest outbreak in the DRC between 2018 and 2020. Ebola, believed to have originated in bats, can cause severe bleeding and organ failure. Outbreaks over the past half-century have seen a mortality rate among those affected of between 25% and 90%, according to WHO The virus spreads from person to person through bodily fluids or exposure to the blood of an infected person, who becomes contagious only once they display symptoms. The incubation period can last up to 21 days.

Africa

A total of 88 deaths and 336 suspected cases of the highly contagious hemorrhagic fever have so far been reported; WHO director general expresses deep disquiet as the reported cases rise.

WHO declares international emergency as Ebola outbreak kills more than 80 in DR Congo

GENEVA:&nbsp;An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed more than 80 as authorities warned there was no vaccine for the strain in a crisis that the World Health Organization declared an international health emergency on Sunday. A total of 88 deaths and 336 suspected cases of the highly contagious hemorrhagic fever have been reported, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa) said in an update on Saturday. The Geneva-based WHO said early on Sunday the outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola constituted a &quot;public health emergency of international concern&quot; -- the second-highest level of alert under international health regulations. The global health body warned that the true scale of cases and spread was unclear, but stopped short of declaring a pandemic emergency, the highest alert level introduced in 2024. Medical aid group M&eacute;decins Sans Fronti&egrave;res (MSF) said it was preparing a &quot;large-scale response,&quot; calling the rapid spread of the outbreak &quot;extremely concerning,&quot; in warnings echoed by authorities. &quot;The Bundibugyo strain has no vaccine, no specific treatment,&quot; DR Congo&#39;s Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said. &quot;This strain has a very high lethality rate, which can reach 50%.&quot; The strain -- which was first identified in 2007 -- has also killed a Congolese national in neighboring Uganda, officials said Saturday. Vaccines are only available for the Zaire strain, which was identified in 1976 and has a higher fatality rate of 60-90%. Health officials confirmed the latest outbreak on Friday in Ituri province in northeastern DRC, which borders Uganda and South Sudan, according to CDC Africa. &quot;We&#39;ve been seeing people die for the past two weeks,&quot; said Isaac Nyakulinda, a local civil society representative contacted by AFP by phone. &quot;There is nowhere to isolate the sick. They are dying at home, and their bodies are being handled by their family members.&quot; According to Kamba, patient zero was a nurse who reported to a health facility in Ituri&#39;s provincial capital, Bunia, on April 24, with symptoms suggesting Ebola. Symptoms of the disease include fever, hemorrhage and vomiting. &quot;The number of cases and deaths we are seeing in such a short timeframe, combined with the spread across several health zones and now across the border, is extremely concerning,&quot; said Trish Newport, MSF&#39;s emergency program manager, which is mobilizing medical and support staff to the area. Large-scale transport of medical equipment is a challenge in DR Congo, a country of more than 100 million people, which is four times the size of France, but has a poor communications infrastructure. High risk of spread&nbsp;It is the 17th Ebola outbreak to hit the DRC, and officials warned of a high risk of spread. &quot;There are significant uncertainties to the true number of infected persons and geographic spread,&quot; the WHO said. But it added the high positivity rate of initial samples, the confirmation of cases in two countries, and the increasing reports of suspected cases, &quot;all point toward a potentially much larger outbreak than what is currently being detected and reported, with significant local and regional risk of spread.&quot; The previous outbreak of Ebola -- which has killed around 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years, despite advances in vaccines and treatment -- was last August in the central region. That episode killed at least 34 people before being declared eradicated in December. Nearly 2,300 people died in the deadliest outbreak in the DRC between 2018 and 2020. Ebola, believed to have originated in bats, can cause severe bleeding and organ failure. Outbreaks over the past half-century have had a mortality rate among those affected ranging from 25% to&nbsp;90%, according to the WHO. The virus spreads from person to person through bodily fluids, including blood, and an infected person becomes contagious only after they develop symptoms. The incubation period can last up to 21 days.

The World Health Organization says the rare Bundibugyo Ebola strain is spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. The outbreak has killed dozens, but the WHO says it does not yet qualify as a pandemic emergency.

WHO declares international health emergency over rare Ebola strain

GENEVA: The World Health Organization (WHO) said Saturday it considered everyone on board a cruise ship hit with a deadly hantavirus outbreak as &quot;high-risk&quot; contacts who should be actively monitored for 42 days. There are nearly 150 people on board the MV Hondius at the centre of the outbreak that has killed three people, which is heading towards the waters off Tenerife. &quot;We classify everybody on board as what we call a high-risk contact,&quot; WHO&#39;s epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director Maria Van Kerkhove told a social media event. Currently, &quot;there&#39;s nobody on board that has any symptoms&quot;, she said, adding though that &quot;active monitoring and follow-up of all the passengers and crew who disembark for a 42-day period&quot; was recommended. Van Kerkove stressed that the risk to the general public and to the people of the Canary Islands, where the Hondius is expected to anchor on Sunday, remained &quot;low&quot;. Three passengers from the ship &ndash; a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman &ndash; have died, out of eight confirmed and suspected cases of the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents. The only hantavirus type that can transmit from person to person &ndash; the Andes virus &ndash; has been confirmed among the six cases who have tested positive, fueling international concern. 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 &ndash; in particular Spain and the Netherlands, the ship&#39;s operator, and experts around the world on the best way forward. On Saturday, WHO had briefed countries with nationals on board the ship about the plans for &quot;safe and dignified disembarkment&quot;, she said. The idea, she said, was for anyone who might be showing symptoms to &quot;immediately go to a medical evacuation plane and be taken to the Netherlands for care&quot;. Countries were organizing planes to take all those without symptoms back home, with some countries, like the United States and Canada, discussing sharing a plane, Van Kerkhove said. 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. That means, she said, &quot;the clock has already started ticking&quot;.

Members of the Spanish Civil Guard wait for the arrival of the Cruise MV Hondius at port of Granadilla de Abona on the island of Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands on May 9, 2026. (AFP)

WHO advises monitoring all passengers after a deadly cruise ship outbreak, ordering 42-day surveillance and follow-up after disembarkation, while saying public risk to the Canary Islands remains low.

Everyone on hantavirus-hit ship 'high-risk contact', must be monitored: WHO

GENEVA: There are six confirmed cases of hantavirus so far out of eight suspected ones following an outbreak on a cruise ship, the World Health Organization said Friday.&nbsp;&quot;As of 8 May, a total of eight cases, including three deaths (case fatality ratio 38%), have been reported. Six cases have been laboratory-confirmed as hantavirus infections, with all identified as Andes virus (ANDV),&quot; it said in a statement.&nbsp;&quot;WHO assesses the risk to the global population posed by this event as low and will continue to monitor the epidemiological situation and update the risk assessment&quot;.&nbsp;&quot;The risk for passengers and crew on the ship is considered moderate,&quot; it added.&nbsp;

The World Health Organization says six hantavirus cases linked to a cruise ship outbreak have been confirmed, including three deaths, while global risk remains low but moderate for passengers and crew aboard the vessel.

WHO says six hantavirus cases confirmed so far

GENEVA: Countries prepared Friday to repatriate passengers stranded aboard the MV Hondius after a deadly hantavirus outbreak killed three people and sickened several others during the trans-Atlantic cruise. The Dutch-flagged vessel, carrying around 150 people, is expected to arrive off Tenerife in Spain&rsquo;s Canary Islands on Sunday. Special flights will then take passengers to their home countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) said the outbreak posed a minimal risk to the general public despite confirmation of the Andes virus strain, the only hantavirus known to spread from person to person. Three passengers &mdash; a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman &mdash; have died, while others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents. &ldquo;This is a dangerous virus, but only to the person who&#39;s really infected, and the risk to the general population remains absolutely low,&rdquo; WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told reporters. &ldquo;The virus is not that contagious that it easily jumps from person to person,&rdquo; he added. The WHO said Friday there were five confirmed and three suspected cases of the virus, with an update due later. There are no suspected cases remaining on the ship. A KLM flight attendant who came into contact with an infected passenger and later showed mild symptoms tested negative for hantavirus, the WHO said. The infected passenger &mdash; the wife of the first person to die in the outbreak &mdash; had briefly boarded a Johannesburg-to-Netherlands flight on April 25 before being removed prior to takeoff. She died the following day in a Johannesburg hospital. Spanish authorities said a woman seated two rows behind the infected passenger on that flight was also being tested for hantavirus after developing symptoms in eastern Spain. She is in isolation in hospital. The MV Hondius left Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 for a cruise across the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Verde. Three suspected cases, including two crew members who later tested positive, were evacuated from Cape Verde to the Netherlands. German authorities said Friday the third person tested negative but would remain under observation. Two Dutch healthcare workers &mdash; an expert from the European Centres for Disease Control and a WHO representative &mdash; are now aboard the ship conducting a risk assessment. Spanish authorities said the ship will anchor off Tenerife and will not be allowed to dock. Passengers will be transferred to shore on a smaller vessel before being taken by bus to the airport. The evacuation must take place between Sunday and Monday due to likely adverse weather conditions afterward, the Canarian regional government said. Dockworkers in Tenerife protested Friday against the ship&rsquo;s arrival. British health authorities also said Friday there was a suspected case on Tristan da Cunha, one of the world&rsquo;s most isolated settlements with around 220 people.

A bank vole (Myodes glareolus), also known as the forest vole, is a small rodent that can transmit hantavirus, which is dangerous to humans. (AFP)

Countries are preparing to repatriate passengers from the MV Hondius after a deadly hantavirus outbreak killed three people and infected several others during the cruise across the Atlantic Ocean.

Passengers to be repatriated after deadly hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship

GENEVA: The World Health Organization said Friday that the risk to the public of a deadly hantavirus strain in a cruise ship outbreak was minimal, as it spreads only through &quot;very close contact&quot;. &quot;This is a dangerous virus, but only to the person who&#39;s really infected, and the risk to the general population remains absolutely low,&quot; WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told a press briefing in Geneva. He pointed out that even people who had stayed in the same cabins on the stricken MV Hondius cruise ship &quot;don&#39;t seem to be both infected in some cases&quot;. The spokesman insisted that the disease was &quot;not spreading anything close to how Covid was spreading&quot;. &quot;The contact tracing is effective because it traces those who have been in close contact,&quot; he said. The ship left Ushuaia on the southern tip of Argentina on April 1 for a cruise across the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Verde, stopping at several remote islands along the way.

This handhout photograph taken and released on May 7, 2026 by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows its Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (R) speaking with WHO Health Emergencies Programme executive director Chikwe Ihekweazu prior to a virtu

Says the public risk from the deadly hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius is very low because the virus spreads only through very close contact.

Hantavirus outbreak risk to public 'absolutely low': WHO

GENEVA: The World Health Organization said Thursday that more hantavirus cases could emerge after the disease killed three passengers from a cruise ship, but it expected the outbreak to be limited if precautions were taken.&nbsp;Another sick passenger from the MV Hondius landed in Europe earlier in the day, as the vessel headed to the Spanish Canary Islands and health officials scrambled to map the outbreak of the potentially deadly human-to-human strain.&nbsp;The fate of the Hondius sparked international alarm after three people travelling on it died, though health officials have played down fears of a wider global outbreak from the rat-borne virus, which is less contagious than Covid-19.&nbsp;WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in Geneva that five confirmed and three suspected cases had been reported overall, including the three deaths.&nbsp;&quot;Given the incubation period of the Andes virus, which can be up to six weeks, it&#39;s possible that more cases may be reported,&quot; he said, referring to the rare strain detected aboard the Hondius, which can be transmitted between humans.&nbsp;The Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands later announced another patient had tested positive.&nbsp;But the WHO&#39;s emergency alert and response director Abdi Rahman Mahamud insisted: &quot;We believe this will be a limited outbreak if the public health measures are implemented and solidarity shown across all countries.&quot;&nbsp;People thought or known to have contracted the virus are being treated or isolating in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and South Africa.&nbsp;Rare diseaseHantavirus is a rare respiratory disease that is usually spread from infected rodents and can cause respiratory and cardiac distress as well as haemorrhagic fevers. There are no vaccines and no known cure.&nbsp;A passenger is thought to have contracted the virus before boarding the ship in Argentina and eventually infected others on board as it sailed across the Atlantic.&nbsp;Three evacuees were whisked away from the ship on Wednesday when it anchored off Cape Verde and a fourth landed on Thursday in Amsterdam, said the vessel&#39;s operator, Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions.&nbsp;&quot;No symptomatic individuals are present on board&quot; the ship at the moment, as it sails toward the Spanish island of Tenerife, it said in a statement.&nbsp;The ship is scheduled to arrive there on Sunday and those on board will be evacuated.&nbsp;Oceanwide Expeditions said there were 149 people on the ship, including 88 passengers.&nbsp;Officials in Argentina said they planned to test rodents in the coastal city of Ushuaia, from where the ship had set sail on April 1.&nbsp;First caseA Dutch man who had boarded in Ushuaia along with his wife died aboard the ship on April 11.&nbsp;The man&#39;s body was taken off the ship on April 24 in Saint Helena, an island in the south Atlantic where 29 other passengers disembarked, the ship&#39;s operator said.&nbsp;It said it was working to trace all passengers and crew who got on or off the ship since March 20.&nbsp;Tedros said the WHO had informed 12 countries that their nationals disembarked from the cruise ship on Saint Helena.&nbsp;The Saint Helena government said &quot;more than 95 percent&quot; of the population had no close contact with the ship&#39;s passengers or crew, or boarded the vessel, and are currently &quot;at an extremely low risk of infection&quot;.&nbsp;The deceased man&#39;s wife -- who left the ship to accompany his body to South Africa -- died there 15 days later after also falling ill, with hantavirus confirmed as the cause on May 4.&nbsp;The couple had visited Chile, Uruguay and Argentina before the cruise, Argentine officials said.&nbsp;Chile&#39;s health ministry said the two passengers who died were not infected in that country as they travelled there at &quot;a period that does not correspond to the incubation time&quot;.&nbsp;According to the WHO, the incubation period for hantavirus can be up to six weeks.&nbsp;The Dutch woman had flown on a commercial plane from the island of Saint Helena to Johannesburg while she was showing symptoms.&nbsp;Officials were trying to trace people on that flight, which South African-based carrier Airlink said was carrying 82 passengers and six crew.&nbsp;A German passenger died on May 2. Her body remains on the ship.

WHO warns more hantavirus cases may emerge after three cruise passengers died aboard MV Hondius, but expects a limited outbreak if precautions hold, with additional confirmed and suspected infections across several countries amid ongoing probes.

WHO warns of more hantavirus cases in 'limited' outbreak

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: An average of one woman dies every hour in Afghanistan from preventable pregnancy and childbirth complications, according to the World Health Organization, raising alarm over a deepening maternal health crisis in the country. According to the report, Afghanistan&rsquo;s maternal mortality rate has climbed to 521 deaths per 100,000 live births, among the highest in the world. Health experts say the vast majority of these deaths could be avoided with timely medical care. Female doctors inside Afghanistan say a combination of restrictions and systemic challenges has pushed the health sector to the brink. They cite a shortage of female specialists, the closure of women-focused health centers, and limitations on medical graduates&rsquo; ability to pursue advanced training or sit for state licensing exams. &ldquo;These policies are directly affecting our capacity to provide care,&rdquo; said one female physician in Kabul, who spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. &ldquo;Without trained female staff, many women cannot access treatment at all.&rdquo; Under current rules imposed by the Taliban, women face significant barriers in education and employment, including in the medical field. Female health workers say these restrictions have reduced both the number of practicing professionals and the pipeline of future doctors. In addition to staffing shortages, geographic and economic barriers are compounding the crisis. Many rural communities remain far from functioning health facilities, while high treatment costs and a lack of essential childbirth equipment further limit access to care. The World Health Organization has warned that if current trends continue, maternal and newborn deaths could rise further. The agency has called for urgent measures to restore access to health services, expand training opportunities, and ensure that women can both receive and provide medical care. Doctors on the ground echo those concerns, saying the situation could worsen rapidly without intervention. &ldquo;If these restrictions remain,&rdquo; another female doctor said, &ldquo;the health crisis will spread far beyond what we are seeing now.&rdquo;

Midwife students participate in practical training sessions at Bamyan’s Provincial hospital. 

Afghanistan

The World Health Organization warns that preventable maternal deaths are surging in Afghanistan due to health system collapse and restrictions imposed by the Taliban.

A woman dies every hour in Afghanistan from preventable birth complications: WHO

GENEVA: The World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday it was tracing people on a flight between the island of Saint Helena and Johannesburg, taken by a cruise ship passenger who died of hantavirus. A total of 82 passengers and six crew were on board the April 25 flight from the British island in the Atlantic Ocean, South African-based carrier Airlink told AFP. They included a Dutch woman whose husband died of the virus on the ship and whose condition &quot;deteriorated during a flight to Johannesburg&quot;, WHO said in a statement. She had left the ship in Saint Helena with &quot;gastrointestinal symptoms&quot; on April 24, flew the next day and died upon arrival at the emergency department of a Johannesburg hospital on April 26, the WHO said. On May 4, tests for hantavirus proved positive. &quot;Contact tracing for passengers on the flight has been initiated,&quot; the WHO said. Airlink operates one flight a week from the island, which takes around four hours and 45 minutes. The South African authorities had asked the airline to notify the passengers that they must contact the health department, a representative, Karin Murray, told AFP. WHO said it suspected that hantavirus may have spread between people on the cruise ship, which on Tuesday was anchored just off Cape Verde. Besides the Dutch couple, a German passenger has also died. There are two confirmed and five suspected cases. Saint Helena, home to around 4,400 close-knit people, said passengers from the MV Hondius had come ashore and some people on the remote South Atlantic island were being asked to isolate themselves. &quot;Two passengers with minor symptoms came ashore and may have had some contact with members of our local community,&quot; the British overseas territory&#39;s government said in a statement. &quot;While the virus can be serious, no cases of this illness have been identified in St Helena and there is no significant cause for concern on the island at this time. &quot;A small number of people who travelled to St Helena on the MV Hondius or had very close contact with those who were showing symptoms, are being advised by Public Health to undertake a period of self-isolation as a precaution.&quot; The government said a full risk-based contact tracing process was under way to identify and notify such persons.

An ambulance boat carrying crew members wearing hazmat suits, returns to the port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, on May 5, 2026 after a visit to the cruise ship MV Hondius, while stationary off the harbor. (AFP)

WHO traces contacts on a flight from Saint Helena to Johannesburg after a cruise ship passenger later tested positive for hantavirus and died, prompting contact tracing for all 82 passengers and six crew members.

Articles tagged with "World Health Organization (WHO)"

Hondius captain to leave hantavirus ship: WHO

WHO declares international emergency as Ebola outbreak kills more than 80 in DR Congo

WHO declares international health emergency over rare Ebola strain

Everyone on hantavirus-hit ship 'high-risk contact', must be monitored: WHO

WHO says six hantavirus cases confirmed so far

Passengers to be repatriated after deadly hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship

Hantavirus outbreak risk to public 'absolutely low': WHO

WHO warns of more hantavirus cases in 'limited' outbreak

A woman dies every hour in Afghanistan from preventable birth complications: WHO

WHO tracing over 80 people on flight taken by hantavirus victim

Hondius captain to leave hantavirus ship: WHO