Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi addresses concerns over hantavirus cases linked to an international cruise ship.
Image: GCIS
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has urged South Africans not to panic over the recently confirmed hantavirus cases linked to international cruise ship passengers, stressing that the virus is well known to health authorities and is not spreading widely in the country.
Briefing Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health on Wednesday, Motsoaledi said public concern over the outbreak was understandable given memories of the Covid-19 pandemic, but insisted the situation was fundamentally different.
“The hantavirus is not a new virus. It’s not like COVID,” Motsoaledi said.
“I am painfully aware that members of the public are very worried because they are thinking of the scary days of COVID virus. But remember that the COVID virus just fell on us without anybody suspecting anything. This particular one is a well-known virus.”
The briefing follows the confirmation that one international cruise ship passenger tested positive for hantavirus after being medically evacuated to South Africa, while two Dutch tourists linked to the same voyage died after falling ill.
Motsoaledi said the cases stem from a Dutch-flagged cruise ship that had travelled through South America and the South Atlantic before several passengers developed severe respiratory illness.
He emphasised that hantavirus is primarily transmitted from rodents to humans through contact with infected urine, droppings or saliva, and that human-to-human spread is extremely uncommon.
“Person-to-person contact is very rare,” he said.
“There must be very close person-to-person contact, very, very close person-to-person contact for transmission to occur from one human to the other.”
Preliminary testing by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases indicates the strain involved is the Andes strain, the only known hantavirus strain associated with rare human-to-human transmission.
Health authorities have traced 62 people who may have come into contact with the infected individuals, with 42 already assessed and placed under observation.
“As of the 5th of May, the total number of people who were traced, who could have come in contact with them were 62,” Motsoaledi said.
“Forty-two of them have already been traced and they are being observed.”
He said there is currently no evidence of wider community spread in South Africa.
Motsoaledi added that the outbreak response demonstrates the strength of South Africa’s health surveillance systems and coordination between local and international health authorities.
“South Africa’s One Health approach has provided a valuable platform for collaboration across human, animal and environmental sectors,” he said.
The Department of Health, working with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the World Health Organisation, continues to monitor the situation as investigations proceed.
Motsoaledi reiterated that while vigilance remains necessary, the public should remain calm as authorities manage the isolated cases.
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