Reuters
source : reuters
A Dutch hospital has quarantined 12 staff members as a preventive measure after blood and urine from a hantavirus patient were handled without observing strict protocols, as medics around the world work to stop the spread of the outbreak.
The 12 will be quarantined for six weeks, the Radboudumc hospital in the city of Nijmegen said, adding that the infection risk was very low and patient care continued uninterrupted.
The quarantining of the medics illustrates the challenge of quickly introducing and implementing stricter protocols needed in hospitals and elsewhere for dealing with the hantavirus strain behind the outbreak that hit the Hondius luxury cruise ship.
The World Health Organization increased its tally of confirmed cases in the outbreak to nine, up by two from the previous day.
The head of the U.N. agency said more cases could come because of the long incubation period, but that this was not a pandemic, and was nothing like COVID-19.
The virus can be deadly, although it does not spread easily from person to person.
