The spread of the hantavirus, detected on board the MV Hondius cruise ship, now evacuated, appears to be under control. But that does not mean the crisis is behind us.
“Given the long incubation period of the virus, it is possible that more cases may appear in the coming weeks,” recalled Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), during a press conference in Madrid on May 12.
If the WHO recommends a 42-day quarantine for passengers and crew, the decision on the type of health protocol to implement is up to the countries concerned. And one of them has decided not to apply the highest security measures: the United States.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the country’s main health agency, were slow to react. “It is true that the CDC had this reputation for being a bit ahead in epidemiological and biological management. And it’s true that this time, it arrived quite late compared to the start of this crisis,” explains epidemiologist Anne Sénéquier, co-director of the IRIS Global Health Observatory, to the HuffPost.
In the video at the top of the article, The HuffPost looks back on how the United States handled this hantavirus contamination crisis and the reasons for the CDC’s dysfunction in response to this health threat.
