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The head of the World Health Organisation says the Ebola outbreak in Congo is "spreading rapidly" and now poses a "very high" risk at the national level. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom said Friday the UN health agency was revising upward to "very high" its assessment of the risk within Congo, which had previously been deemed as high. The risk remains high for regional spread and low at global levels, he told reporters. The WHO chief noted that 82 cases have been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with seven confirmed deaths, "but we know the epidemic in DRC is much larger." He said there are now almost 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths. The situation in neighbouring Uganda is "stable" with two cases confirmed in people who had travelled from Congo, with one death.
At least 131 deaths and over 500 suspected cases have been reported in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo, the Congolese health ministry said Tuesday as details emerged about the government's delayed response. Samuel Roger Kamba, the minister of public health, said: "513 suspected cases and 131 deaths have been recorded in the affected areas." "These are suspected deaths, and investigations are underway to determine which ones are actually linked to the disease." The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Sunday declared the Ebola outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. Health authorities say the current outbreak, first confirmed on Friday, is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of the Ebola disease that has no approved therapeutics or vaccines. Although more than 20 Ebola outbreaks have taken place in Congo and Uganda, this is only the third time that the Bundibugyo virus has been detected. Cases have now been confirmed in Bunia, North Kivu's
A cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak is scheduled to arrive in the port city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands on Monday morning. The MV Hondius has spent the past six days sailing from the Canary Islands, where the remaining passengers were escorted off the vessel by personnel in full-body protective gear and boarded flights to more than 20 countries to enter quarantine. The outbreak on the ship has reached 11 cases, nine of which have been confirmed, according to the World Health Organisation. Three passengers have died, including a Dutch couple who health officials believe were the first exposed to the virus while visiting South America. The vessel has made the journey from Tenerife up the coast of Africa and Europe with 25 crew members and two medical personnel. According to the ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions, no one on board is experiencing any symptoms. Crew members who are unable to return home will be quarantined in the Netherlands, the Dutch health ministry
An oncologist travelling on the cruise ship at the centre of a hantavirus outbreak has been cleared to leave a special biocontainment unit in Nebraska, where he was the lone American placed in isolation after he helped care for fellow passengers who became sick on board. Dr. Stephen Kornfeld of Bend, Oregon, was among more than 120 passengers and crew evacuated from the ship and flown to different countries to enter quarantine. Kornfeld was brought to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha with 15 other Americans, but he was the only one taken to an isolated biocontainment unit after a nasal swab he took on the ship produced inconclusive results about whether he had the virus. On Wednesday, the hospital announced that Kornfeld will now join the 15 other Americans who were taken for monitoring at the National Quarantine Unit, instead of the biocontainment unit, according to hospital spokesperson Kayla Thomas. Kornfeld appeared on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" on a video
Passengers evacuated from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship began flying home aboard military and government planes after the vessel anchored in the Canary Islands, with one American testing positive and a French traveller developing symptoms for the pathogen aboard their separate aircraft. One the 17 American passengers evacuated from the MV Hondius tested positive for the hantavirus but is not showing any symptoms, US health officials said late Sunday. Earlier, one of the five French passengers developed symptoms on their flight home, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said in a statement, and all were put into strict isolation with plans to be tested. Passengers were evacuated off the MV Hondius following its arrival in Tenerife, the largest island in the Spanish archipelago off the West African coast. Earlier, officials from the Spanish Health Ministry, the World Health Organisation and the cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions had said none of the more than 140 people who wer
The head of the World Health Organisation sought Saturday to reassure worried residents of the Spanish island of Tenerife that they are not in danger from the anticipated arrival there of a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, issuing a direct message to them. The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, with more than 140 passengers and crew on board, is headed to Spain's Canary Islands, off the coast of West Africa, and is expected to arrive at the island of Tenerife in the early hours of Sunday. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, along with Spain's Health Minister Monica Garcia and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, are to head to the island Saturday to coordinate the disembarkation. of passengers and some crew. Some residents on the island have said they do not want the ship to dock there, fearing the transmission of the virus. On board the cruise ship, some of the Spanish passengers have voiced concern about how they will be received once on land. "I know you are worried.
Amid concerns over two Indian nationals reportedly infected with the hantavirus aboard a cruise ship, Director of the ICMR's National Institute of Virology Dr Naveen Kumar on Friday said the cases appear to be isolated ones and there is no immediate public health threat to India. Kumar said there is no evidence of community spread as of now. Hantaviruses are mainly transmitted to humans through contact with infected rodents or their excreta such as saliva, urine and faeces, he told PTI. People usually get infected by inhaling aerosolised virus particles from rodent urine, droppings, or saliva in closed or poorly ventilated spaces such as warehouses, ships, barns and storage areas, he said. "The reported hantavirus cases appear to be isolated ones and there is no immediate public health threat to India," he said. His remarks come after reports that two Indian nationals aboard a cruise ship were detected with hantavirus. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the two Ind
At least two Indian nationals are part of the crew of the Dutch vessel MV Hondius which reported a hantavirus outbreak with five confirmed cases and three deaths so far, according to the BBC. The luxury cruise ship, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, began its journey on April 1 from Argentina's Ushuaia and is expected to arrive in Spain's Canary Islands on May 10. About 150 passengers and crew from 28 countries were initially aboard the luxury cruise, but dozens disembarked on the island of St Helena on April 24, according to the report. Of the 28 nationalities onboard, 38 are from the Philippines, 31 from the UK, 23 from the US, 16 from the Netherlands, 14 from Spain, nine from Germany, six from Canada, and two crew members from India, among others, the BBC reported. The World Health Organization said on Thursday that five of the eight suspected hantavirus cases had been confirmed. A 69-year-old Dutch woman, confirmed to have the virus, has died; her Dutch husband and a German w
An outbreak of the rare hantavirus unfolded over weeks on a cruise ship as it sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. At least three passengers have died and several others are sick and were evacuated from the ship. Health authorities are trying to trace passengers who left the ship previously and people who might have had contact with them. More than 140 passengers and crew members are still aboard the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius as it heads for Spain's Canary Islands. Hantavirus is a rodent-borne infection that in rare cases can be transmitted from person to person, though the World Health Organisation says the risk to the wider public is low because the virus can't easily be passed between people. Here's a timeline of the outbreak: April 1 --------- The ship sets off from Ushuaia in the far south of Argentina. Scheduled stops include Antarctica and several isolated South Atlantic Ocean islands. April 6 --------- A 70-year-old Dutch man becomes sick on board with fever, headache and