Health ministry on alert for hantavirus

Jamaica’s health ministry said it will be ramping up the monitoring of cruise ships docking at the nation’s ports as the Government takes precautions to prevent possible risks from hantavirus. 

 Addressing yesterday’s post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House in St Andrew,  Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-Mckenzie, the island’s chief medical officer (CMO), said the current assessment from the World Health Organization is that there is a low risk of global spread of the virus. 

 However, she noted that Jamaica is a hub for cruise shipping, and “it makes sense for us to increase our vigilance and certainly, public health measures include early detection, timely treatment and reduction of exposure risk”.

 She said before a ship can dock at the island’s ports, it must notify the authorities whether there is any illness on board by submitting a detailed declaration of health. 

 When the ship comes into port there is then further assessment done by medical personnel, who board the ship to verify the declaration of health. 

 “We're going to be a lot more proactive. We've spoken to our director of environmental health to ensure that our team is properly sensitised about the matter, and that we are more proactive in terms of our inspections,” she said. 

 An outbreak of Andes hantavirus, a rare rodent-borne virus capable of limited human-to-human transmission, has affected the MV Hondius cruise ship in the Atlantic, resulting in three deaths 

 Approximately 150 people, from 23 countries, on the vessel stranded near Cape Verde, off the west coast of Africa, and several others are either ill or displaying symptoms of the virus. 

 Bisasor-Mckenzie noted that symptoms include fever, gastrointestinal symptoms, progression to pneumonia, and acute respiratory distress syndrome.

 “It's primarily acquired through contact with urine, faeces, saliva of infected rodents, and I've made sure to check with our Veterinary Division and our own Environmental Health Division. We have not had any cases of hantavirus in our rodents in Jamaica. It is rare, but it's severe when it happens…a disease, and it can be deadly,” she said. 

 She stated that human-to-human transmission is not usual. However, there have been documented cases of the Andes strain of the virus.

 “This strain has been detected in the cases aboard the ship where we have the index cases. So, and by transmission, human to human is usually close contact, likely respiratory droplets,” she said. 

 She said symptoms usually occur within one to eight weeks after transmission. 

 She said Jamaica does not currently have the capacity to test for the virus, but has already been in contact with The Caribbean Public Health Agency Medical Microbiology Laboratory, which acts as the regional reference laboratory for 18 member states, to do so if the need arises. 

 “But just to say that just like with COVID, we have the ability to ramp up very quickly in terms of having our own testing because we do have the equipment that can test. It's just for us to bring in the reagents and to do the training of the staff; and we were able to do that very quickly with COVID and with other  problems that we've had to manage. So I don't doubt that we would be able to do that in case we do have any problems,” she said. 

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com