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Scientists comment on a statement from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on hantavirus, travel arrangements and isolation for British nationals aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship.
Prof Sir Peter Horby, Moh Family Foundation Professor of Emerging Infections and Global Health, and Director of the Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford, said:
“I believe the UKHSA, FCDO and NHS are taking all the right and necessary measures to protect the UK citizens involved in this challenging incident and to protect the broader UK population. Repatriation and isolation is the right thing to do, morally and scientifically. It will ensure the UK citizens from the MV Hondius potentially exposed to this virus receive the medical monitoring they need whilst minimising the risk of further infections. If any of the returnees do get ill, they will quickly receive the best possible care in the NHS under strict isolation.
“The approach is stringent because this virus can cause severe disease, but the risk to the general population is very low. Of course, we need to investigate and carefully monitor the situation to spot any divergence from how we expect this virus to behave, but so far the virus is behaving in a way we know it can.
We know there can be limited person to person transmission following close and prolonged contact with an infected person but that public health measures can readily stop transmission and bring the outbreak to an end.
“It’s important that we also use this incident to learn more about Andes Hantavirus infection and disease so we are better prepared for future cases and outbreaks.”
Prof Jonathan Ball, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Molecular Virology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said:
“The incubation period – the time from when someone is infected, to when they start to show symptoms – can be up to several weeks, so having a long period of isolation with regular observations and testing is a sensible approach to pick up any missed infections and limit the risk for any human to human transmission.
“For this particular hantavirus – the Andes virus – we have suspected that the virus can be spread from human to humans perhaps more readily than other hantavirus, but this is still inefficient and requires very close contact, probably over relatively long periods of time. This means that the risk that the returned passengers pose to the wider public is very very small indeed.”
SMC comments on Thurs 7 May on update from UKHSA re two people having had returned to the UK having been on board the MV Hondius, are not currently reporting symptoms and are self-isolating:
Previous SMC comments from Wed 6, Tues 5 and Monday 4 May on hantavirus situation at that time:
Declared interests
Prof Sir Peter Horby: “I am Executive Director of the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infections Consortium (ISARIC) which is undertaking research to learn more about Andes Hantavirus infection and disease.”
Prof Jonathan Ball: “No CoIs.”