Woman isolating on British island in South Pacific after hantavirus contact

Woman isolating on British island in South Pacific after hantavirus contact17 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleThomas CopelandMichael Dunning / Getty ImagesThe remote Pitcairn Islands has a population of about 50 peopleA woman is isolating on the Pitcairn Islands, a remote British Overseas Territory in the South Pacific, after travelling on a hantavirus-hit cruise ship.A local government spokesperson told the BBC the person "had contact with a hantavirus-exposed individual" but was "showing no signs of illness". The UK foreign office said it was "aware of an individual from the MV Hondius who has travelled on to the Pitcairn Islands".Officials said she was not a suspected case and the risk to the public was low.The woman had flown from San Francisco on 7 May and travelled through the island of Tahiti and then Mangareva in French Polynesia, the French Polynesian government said. No details have been released about when and where she left the cruise and travelled to the US. Three people have died after travelling on the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius ship. Two of them were confirmed virus cases. The third had earlier developed symptoms and is believed to have been the first infected in the outbreak, but died before he could be tested.The World Health Organization (WHO), the UN global health agency, has since confirmed nine cases, with two others suspected.On Tuesday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there was at that time "no sign" of a larger hantavirus outbreak after the evacuation of the last passengers from the ship a day earlier.But he warned that "the situation could change" and there could be more confirmed virus cases.Hantaviruses are usually carried by rodents, but human transmission of the Andes strain - which the WHO believes some of the ship's passengers contracted in South America - is possible.Symptoms can include fever, extreme fatigue, muscle aches, stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhoea...