The Centre for Emerging Viral Diseases of the Geneva University Hospital (HUG), a WHO collaborating center, has just identified the strain of hantavirus that caused three deaths on a cruise ship in the Atlantic ocean.
The strain is Andes.
This identification was made possible by a sample taken from a person who had been on the MV Hondius and who tested positive for hantavirus by PCR at the Centre national de référence pour les infections virales émergentes (CRIVE, virology laboratory of HUG), on 5 May 2026.
The Andes virus is the only hantavirus for which human-to-human transmission has been documented, explains Dr Manuel Schibler, head of the HUG virology laboratory.
This crucial information was immediately communicated to the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) and the WHO.
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