EXPLAINER | SA rats don’t carry hantavirus, declares Motsoaledi

As concerns are raised about whether South Africans are at risk of contracting the deadlyhantavirusthat has already claimed lives, health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi on Wednesday updated parliament’s portfolio committee on health on the situation. People are demanding answers, especially after a Dutch woman died at a Kempton Park hospital and a Briton with the virus is being treated at a Sandton hospital. Health experts have reiterated that it is extremely rare for the virus to be passed from human to human and that it is carried in rat droppings.

Motsoaledi said South African rats did not carry the virus. it is found in North and South America, in Europe and in India. I do not know of any case among South African rats.” Motsoaledi said the department of health had traced 62 people who could have been in contact with the two hantaviruspatientson a cruise ship who were flown to SA after contracting the disease.

“Forty-two of them have already been traced, and they are being observed. The work is ongoing.” Motsoaledi said the health department and the World Health Organisation were implementing contact tracing locally and internationally to find everybody who had been in contact with people who could have the virus. The two cases involve a 69-year-old British man who is in the intensive care unit of a Sandton hospital and a 69-year-old Dutch woman who died after collapsing at OR Tambo International Airport.

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Of the 38 known hantavirus strains, the recent cases involve the Andes strain, which is predominant in South America, Motsoaledi said. Preliminary tests by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases confirmed this strain, which is unique in its ability to spread through human-to-human transmission. “Obviously, if it is a virus that can spread via human‑to‑human contact, the first thing to do is to do contact tracing,” he said. Motsoaledi said the cruise ship in question, MV Hondius, was en route to Italy and would not be docking in SA.

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