Nine hantavirus contact cases due to arrive in Britain

LONDON - Nine people were due to fly into Britain on May 17 from British overseas territories after coming into contact with a person with hantavirus, Britain’s health security agency said.

The UKSHA confirmed in a statement that “nine asymptomatic contacts from St Helena and Ascension Island are expected to arrive in the UK this evening”.

They will be transferred to an isolation facility at Arrowe Park Hospital, near Liverpool in north-west England, the statement added.

A medic from Ascension Island, who developed symptoms after being contact with someone who developed hantavirus symptoms, is already receiving treatment in Britain, said the agency.

“The individual will undergo further testing and assessment at the unit today,” it added.

Around 20 former passengers from the cruise ship MV Hondius, where the outbreak started in April, are already under observation in Britain, after having been flown back from the Canary Islands on May 10.

Of those, eight have already left Arrowe Park hospital where they were in quarantine and will self-isolate at home for the next 45 days, said a UKHSA statement on May 16.

Globally, the death toll remains at three.

No vaccines or specific treatments for hantavirus exist, but health officials have dismissed comparisons on the severity of the outbreak to the Covid-19 pandemic. AFP