3 dead in Venezuela due to hantavirus

The Venezuelan Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that at least three people had died after contracting hantavirus, while ruling out human-to-human transmission of the rare disease.

There is no specific treatment for respiratory hantavirus, which is usually transmitted by rodents and very rarely spreads from person to person.

The ministry stated that those diagnosed with “confirmed hantavirus” died in Anzoátegui state, in the northeast of the country, and added that there is “no scientific evidence of human-to-human transmission of the infection in our country.”

The ministry also denied any link between the hantavirus deaths and the deaths of two health workers in Barinas state in the west, the cause of which remains unspecified.

It ruled out any “connection between the reported cases.”

An outbreak of hantavirus aboard a cruise ship in April sparked global health alarm.

Three people aboard the MV Hondius died from the disease at that time.

The World Health Organization declared the outbreak officially over in early July.

The ship had sailed on April 1 from Argentina, where the Andes variant—the only known variant capable of human-to-human transmission—is endemic in some areas.