Cyprus is ready for every possible hantavirus scenario, the Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Health said on Monday, as three passengers from a cruise ship infected with the virus have already died.
Elisavet Konstantinou said that over the weekend, officers from the ministry’s epidemiological surveillance unit monitored the preparation of protocols by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and drew up Cyprus’s contingency strategy.
The ECDC protocol provides for a 42-day isolation period for contacts, Konstantinou said, adding that cases are graded by low and high risk. She noted that some countries may choose to apply stricter protocols of their own.
The Andean hantavirus spreads from animals to humans and only rarely from person to person, she explained.
Konstantinou said she hoped “the cluster of cases identified on the cruise ship will not spread and the matter will end there.” She stressed that what has caused concern, and the reason such strict measures have been taken, is the virus’s very high mortality rate.
Cyprus’s risk level is “very low,” she said, adding that there are no recorded cases linked to hantavirus on the island, “although we cannot be certain about previous decades when surveillance was not the same.”
Konstantinou also warned of other risks from contact with rodents, their droppings or urine. “We have rickettsia, we have other unpleasant conditions that come from rodents,” she said, urging farmers and other citizens to clean holiday homes and storage rooms as summer approaches.
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