Airport staff, passengers undergo 6-week observation for hantavirus in SA

A woman carrying the hantavirus deteriorated during a flight to Johannesburg on April 25. Contact tracing for those who interacted with a woman who collapsed atOR Tambo International Airportand the man currently hospitalised in Johannesburg with hantavirus is under way and includes airport and hospital staff,and those involved in transporting or admitting the patients. and those involved in transporting or admitting the patients.

During a briefing yesterday to the Portfolio Committee on Health, formerNational Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) deputy director and senior consultant, Professor Lucille Blumberg, said within 24 hours of being alerted of the outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship, the country had confirmed hantavirus. Some of the passengers had experienced serious health complications while the ship was travelling past South African shores,arising from what was initially considered severe acute respiratory infections. As a result, a British national was transported to a hospital in Johannesburg on April 27 where he is currently in ICU. A 69-year-old woman, who attempted to catch a connecting flight from OR Tambo back home to the Netherlands on April 25, collapsed due to hantavirus infection, after he husband died the day before.