The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said there was currently no sign of a major outbreak of hantavirus after the evacuation of the last passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship, but warned that the situation could change due to the long incubation period of the virus.
The cruise ship left Tenerife on Monday and is sailing towards Rotterdam, where it is due to arrive on May 17.
The last group of 28 passengers arrived in Eindhoven, while a total of 122 passengers and crew members have been repatriated to the Netherlands and their home countries in recent days. 27 people remain on the ship, including 25 crew members and two medical workers.
Seven cases of infection have been confirmed so far, and three people have died, a Dutch national on board, his wife in South Africa and a German passenger.
The WHO has previously assessed the risk of a major outbreak as low, but stressed that the work is not done in containing the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, 12 employees at the Radboudumc hospital in Nijmegen have been placed in a six-week quarantine after handling patient samples without following strict protocols.
Hantavirus is usually transmitted by rodents, but the Andes strain can be transmitted from person to person in rare cases of close contact.
Symptoms include fever, fatigue, muscle aches, vomiting, diarrhea, and difficulty breathing.
