Social media users around the world have been claiming that hantavirus can’t be spread from one human to another. However, scientists have confirmed that the strain of the virus that circulated on the MV Hondius cruise ship can indeed be transmitted that way, though it isn’t very contagious.
On May 3, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced the death of three passengers on the MV Hondius, a cruise ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean, from hantavirus. Measures were quickly taken to quarantine and keep under close surveillance those ill or possibly infected with the virus, which has a 38 percent lethality rate, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Contact tracing also began in an attempt to track down people who might have been infected.
