WHO says flight attendant’s negative hantavirus test eases fears over virus spread

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday that a flight attendant tested negative after direct contact with a woman who succumbed to the virus, easing concerns about wider transmission.

The comments came amid growing concern over a hantavirus outbreak linked to the cruise ship MV Hondius, where several infections and three deaths have been reported.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said the Andes virus, the only hantavirus known to spread between humans, requires extremely close and prolonged contact for transmission.

Lindmeier said a flight attendant who assisted a woman shortly before she died from the virus later tested negative, adding: “This should convince nearly everybody now that this is a dangerous virus, but only to the person who’s really infected, and the risk to the general population remains absolutely low.”

According to Dutch media reports, the flight attendant assisted the only infected passenger who later died from the virus. The woman had been due to board a KLM flight from Johannesburg to Amsterdam but was denied boarding because of her condition.

Lindmeier said such cases demonstrate that hantavirus transmission is far more limited than viruses such as COVID-19 or measles.

“Close contact means you have to be basically in your face,” he said, explaining that infection would likely require exposure to respiratory droplets or bodily fluids.

“This is not a new COVID,” he stressed, adding that even people sharing cabins with infected individuals had in some cases tested negative.

Regarding the ship’s arrival in the Canary Islands, the spokesperson said he could not provide an exact timeline.

However, he said WHO understood that the vessel had been waiting for two medical doctors from the Netherlands to board the ship. The doctors, together with a WHO expert already on board, are expected to accompany the vessel to the islands, he added.