Africa CDC warned on Thursday that 28 African countries, including Camaroon, do not have the reagents and testing kits needed to rapidly confirm hantavirus infections, leaving most of the continent unable to rule cases in or out quickly. The agency said only about 12 countries currently have functional confirmation protocols, while 16 have PCR testing capacity for the virus.
The warning came during a joint technical webinar convened by WHO-AFRO and Africa CDC to review an ongoing international outbreak linked to the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius. As of May 13, the World Health Organization had recorded 11 cases, eight confirmed, one inconclusive and two probable, with three deaths attributed to the Andes strain of hantavirus.
Africa CDC said the continent’s overall risk remains low, but the agency is treating the outbreak as a live surveillance issue because the Andes strain is the only known hantavirus capable of spreading between humans. Hantaviruses are usually transmitted to people through contact with infected rodents or their waste, not through casual person-to-person spread, which is why most outbreaks do not move easily beyond the original exposure site.
The MV Hondius arrived at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife on May 10, and disembarkation was completed on May 11. Repatriation of all passengers and crew to their home countries was later completed. Africa CDC said it engaged Cabo Verde and South Africa directly because those are the two African nations with confirmed links to the outbreak, and it said laboratory confirmation for linked cases has been carried out at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa.
That is where the tension now sits: the outbreak is being tracked in real time, but much of Africa still lacks the tools to confirm a suspected case quickly. Africa CDC said further sequencing and serology analyses are continuing, and it urged member states to strengthen port health services, reinforce infection prevention and control measures and ensure suspected cases are reported on time.
For Africa’s public health agencies, the immediate answer is clear. The outbreak is not judged to pose a high threat to the continent, but the gaps in testing mean a single imported case could still move faster than a laboratory result in many countries. Tolbert Nyenswah put it plainly: the risk to Africa is low, but not zero.
