THE Department of Health (DOH) is waiting for guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO) on the next steps for the Filipino crew members aboard the cruise ship where a hantavirus outbreak has been reported.
DOH spokesman Albert Domingo told The Manila Times on Friday that the agency has yet to receive instructions from the WHO on the measures to be implemented concerning the 38 Filipinos on the MV Hondius.
“We will act accordingly in line with established quarantine protocols once more information is available,” Domingo said.
None of the Filipinos has shown signs of the virus, he said.
At least three passengers have reportedly died because of the outbreak.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in Geneva that five confirmed and three suspected cases had been reported overall, including the three deaths.
On Thursday, Singapore confirmed that two of its nationals aboard the Hondius who were exposed to hantavirus had been isolated.
The Philippines and Singapore are the only two Southeast Asian countries with nationals aboard the ship.
Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness or prevention at the WHO, said the hantavirus detected on the Hondius is “very different” from Covid-19 and should not be treated as the start of another pandemic.
“It’s not coronavirus. This is a very different virus,” Van Kerkhove said in a press conference.
She said the outbreak involves the Andes virus, a type of hantavirus known to have limited human-to-human transmission. Most hantaviruses are typically spread through exposure to infected rodents, their saliva, feces or droppings.
“I want to reiterate that the actions that are being taken on board are precautionary to prevent any onward spread. And so there’s a lot that is being done right now to be able to try to minimize the risk even further,” Van Kerkhove said.
She compared the situation on the Hondius to an outbreak in Argentina in 2018, where a symptomatic individual attended a social gathering that triggered a cluster of infections.
The outbreak infected only 34 people and was eventually contained.
“If we follow public health measures and the lessons we learned from Argentina... we can break this chain of transmission, and this doesn’t need to be a large epidemic,” said Abdirahman Mahamud, director of health emergency alert and response operations at the WHO.
Another sick passenger landed in Europe on Thursday.
A Dutch couple who had traveled around South America before boarding the ship in Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 were the first fatalities.
Argentine health authorities said Thursday they had not yet been able to establish where the outbreak began.
“With the information provided so far by the countries involved and participating national agencies, it is not possible to confirm the origin of the infection,” the health ministry said after a meeting with authorities from all 24 Argentine provinces.
The Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands later announced another patient had tested positive.
But the WHO’s emergency alert and response director Abdi Rahman Mahamud said he believed it would be “a limited outbreak” if “public health measures are implemented and solidarity shown across all countries.”
