3 replies to this topic

[todd]

"..an inappropriate laboratory control procedure” occurred Sunday at Royal Jubilee Hospital...

.."Initially, under an abundance of caution, lab staff were requested to remain in the laboratory until the risk assessment could be completed. In addition, lab tests were paused and sent off-site. A team of infection prevention and control, public health, laboratory, and operations staff worked closely with the BC Centre for Disease Control, carefully reviewing every aspect to ensure a thorough response and was able to determine...

..no increased risk to the public, and no actions for the public to take, at this time. Our sites remain safe places to visit and seek care. Hantavirus does not transmit via blood, rather through infected saliva or urine...": https://globalnews.c...ed-case-canada/





Only a few thousand cases of transmission of the andes strain, doesn't sound like we've got a great grip on possible transmission routes. few previous cases




"..2023 study suggesting the hantavirus can live for years in semen and be transmitted sexually long after infection is getting attention following the deadly outbreak on the MV Hondius...": https://thehill.com/...research-study/


Should have they been brought back to Canada. You assume a risk when you travel abroad. The strain does not exist in Canada except now in Victoria. Just hope it doesn't somehow get to the rodent population.. I assume when they were isolating their waste was not flushed





"..“There is very limited experience handling this virus,” said Palacios, who was the director of the Center for Genome Sciences at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases when he helped piece together how the virus moved from person to person. The study of the outbreak was published in 2020 in the New England Journal of Medicine....": https://www.wcvb.com...epuyen/71239068

Edited by todd, 19 May 2026 - 03:35 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

A Canadian who sailed on the MV Hondius cruise ship has tested positive for hantavirus, health officials confirmed — marking the first case of the disease stemming from the cruise in North America.

On Sunday, May 17, the Public Health Agency of Canada confirmed that one of four Canadians who returned home from the ship last week had received a "presumptive positive," and that further testing was set to be conducted at the country's National Microbiology Lab.

"One individual’s sample was confirmed positive for hantavirus," the agency said in a statement.

A second person who was traveling with the confirmed case has tested negative. Both people are from the Yukon and are in their 70s, and they are now at a hospital in Victoria, officials said.

The other two Canadians aboard the cruise ship are a person in their 70s from Vancouver Island and a British Columbia person in their 50s who lives abroad. All four people are now in isolation.

"I know news like this can be very concerning and can cause us to think about what we went through together over the last number of years, but I want to emphasize that hantavirus is a very different virus than the other respiratory viruses that we've been dealing with — like COVID, like influenza, like measles — and it remains one that we do not consider to have pandemic potential," Dr. Bonnie Henry, the provincial health officer in British Columbia, told the CBC.

Henry said none of the Canadian cruise passengers came into contact with the public after they landed at Victoria International Airport and were taken to the hospital last Sunday, May 10.

Although the four Canadians were initially required to isolate for a minimum of 21 days, Henry said that health officials are currently reassessing their isolation requirements following the positive test.

Three people have died since the hantavirus outbreak began on the MV Hondius last month, and the Canadian patient is the 10th person from the ship to test positive, according to The Washington Post.

 

https://www.aol.com/...-020218000.html

 

 

[todd]

https://www.bccdc.ca...drome_in_BC.pdf








WorkSafeBC: "A Hantavirus Exposure Control Program for Employers and Workers"
"..This booklet is intended for employers and workers who may come into contact with rodents, or rodent droppings, while on the job...":
https://www.worksafe...workers?lang=en

[Victoria Watcher]

I guess this just kind of went away.