(NewsNation) — There is currently no evidence that the hantavirus causing outbreaks on cruise ships has mutated, become more severe or is contagious, the World Health Organization said Friday.
The news comes amid fears of a wider outbreak of Andean hantavirus, which has no cure and can be deadly.
Dr. Maria van Kerkhove, director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention at the World Health Organization, said geneticists have been sequencing the virus that infected people on the ship.
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“What they told me, and they said they didn’t see any changes, was that the virus had changed to make it more transmissible, more severe, anything like that,” Fankokow said.
An outbreak on a cruise ship has killed three people, and other passengers who disembarked are being monitored and quarantined to prevent the spread of the virus.
U.S. passengers were transported to the National Quarantine Center in Nebraska, where passengers were given the option to remain in quarantine at the facility or return home for monitoring.
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WHO officials said the isolation and monitoring were done out of an abundance of caution to prevent the spread of the Andean hantavirus, which can spread from person to person.
“So we are taking precautions on the assumption that there may be other cases on board, which is why there are such strict quarantine measures in place for those who have disembarked,” Van Kerkhove said.
The World Health Organization recommends that people on board quarantine for 42 days to avoid the spread of hantavirus.
They stressed that the overall risk to the public remains low.
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