After hantavirus outbreak, three Canadians are isolating in Ontario and Quebec
Two people were aboard the cruise ship where an outbreak occurred, and the third may have come in contact with the virus on a plane
Three Canadians are self-isolating in Ontario and Quebec after being exposed to the hantavirus. Two of the individuals were aboard the cruise ship where an outbreak occurred, and the third was on the same plane as a possibly symptomatic individual, but was not a passenger on the ship, according to a joint statement published by Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and Health Minister Majorie Michel.
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The federal government will send consular officials to support Canadians still on the ship, which is expected to disembark this Sunday in the Canary Islands.
The hantavirus outbreak on the ship, which departed from Argentina last month, has led to three deaths.
“This is not coronavirus. This is a very different virus,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s director of epidemic and pandemic management, told reporters, intending to assure the public that another pandemic is not expected. “This is not the same situation we were in six years ago.”
The hantavirus is spread by contact with rodents or their urine, saliva or droppings. It is the Andean strain of the virus which has been identified in the ship outbreak. It can spread from person to person.
The ministers’ statement said the three Canadian individuals are asymptomatic and being monitored by officials.
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
