Health officials are still monitoring the Hantavirus and contact tracing people in several countries who debarked the MV Hondius cruise ship connected to the outbreak. The ship departed Argentina en route to the Canary Islands with multiple stops along the way. According to the World Health Organization, three people, including a married couple, died from the Andes strain of Hantavirus and several additional cases have been linked to the cruise ship.
However, there is concern that this small outbreak could become a global pandemic. Dr. Diana Finkle, an infectious disease physician at University Hospital Newark and Associate Professor of Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, is emphasizing that person-to-person spread of Hantavirus is extremely rare and nothing like the Covid-19 virus. To read the full story.