Hantavirus Venezuela: Three Dead After Hondius Outbreak

Transmission and Clinical Picture

Hantaviruses cause severe respiratory illnesses. The viruses are typically spread through the urine, feces, and saliva of infected rodents. Transmission from person to person can be ruled out, according to the report. There is no vaccine against the virus.

The outbreak on the "Hondius" had made international headlines because the infections clustered on board a cruise ship during a multi-day voyage between South America and West Africa. The precise circumstances under which the passengers came into contact with the pathogen have not yet been publicly reconstructed in detail.

Aftermath Following WHO's End of the Outbreak

The deaths in Anzoátegui illustrate that aftereffects of an apparently concluded outbreak can still occur weeks later. Patients may go through a longer incubation period or only be examined by physicians with a delay, so that diagnoses and deaths only become known after the formal end of an outbreak.

Venezuela's Ministry of Health has provided no information beyond the agency report regarding the precise circumstances of the deaths, the timing of the diagnoses, or the health status of additional contacts. Nor were any details initially published regarding possible travel destinations or places of stay of the deceased before the outbreak.

International Assessment

International health authorities have been monitoring hantavirus infections with growing attention for years, because outbreaks keep occurring in rural regions of the Americas and the pathogens have rodents as their reservoir. The absence of a vaccine makes public education, early detection, and hygiene the most important tools in dealing with the pathogen.

The WHO had declared the outbreak on the "Hondius" over at the beginning of July, without having thus far published a detailed final report on the total of twelve confirmed and one probable case. The new deaths from Venezuela show that the follow-up of such events must continue beyond the formal end.