The risk of a hantavirus outbreak in Asia remains minimal, according to health experts, despite the return of two Singapore residents who were on board a cruise ship where three people died from the disease that triggered a regional panic.
Hantaviruses are a family of rat-carried viruses that can infect humans through direct exposure, even though transmission between people is extremely rare. The disease takes its name from South Korea’s Hantan River, where an early strain was identified after outbreaks of haemorrhagic fever among soldiers during the Korean war.
The virus can incubate for several weeks without symptoms before making the carrier dangerously ill.
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The latest cases have put public health authorities across Asia on guard.
Singapore’s Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA) said two men on board the MV Hondius vessel – a 67-year-old Singaporean and a 65-year-old Singapore permanent resident – returned home on Saturday and on Wednesday, respectively, and had been tested and isolated in the city state.
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“The risk to the general public in Singapore is currently low,” the CDA said on Thursday.