Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says South Africa is working closely with the World Health Organization to trace contacts linked to the hantavirus outbreak connected to the cruise ship MV Hondius.
The outbreak has claimed three lives, including a Dutch woman who died after arriving at OR Tambo International Airport. A British national linked to the outbreak remains hospitalised in Johannesburg.
Motsoaledi said authorities have identified 97 contacts, with 90 currently being monitored.
“Four of the contacts out of these 90 who have been reached are in the Western Cape, while 86 are in Gauteng, and we are following them up. Only one of the contacts in the Western Cape developed symptoms, was taken to hospital, and tested negative for hantavirus,” he said.
Meanwhile, Head of Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence at the WHO, Maria van Kerkhove, sought to reassure the public that the outbreak does not pose the same threat as the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is not SARS-CoV-2. This is not the start of a pandemic. This is an outbreak that we are seeing on a ship. It is a confined area, and we have five confirmed cases so far,” van Kerkhove said.
She explained that hantavirus spreads very differently from coronaviruses and is generally associated with close contact.
“It doesn’t spread in the same way that coronaviruses do. It’s very different. Most hantaviruses do not transmit between people at all,” she added.
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