In an interview with L'Observateur, Professor Moussa Seydi, head of the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Department (SMIT) at Fann University Hospital, addressed the current international health situation marked by the emergence of hantavirus cases. The infectious disease specialist, who distinguished himself by successfully treating the only case of Ebola recorded in Senegal in 2014, immediately emphasized the potential severity of such illnesses, stressing that "a single case in a country can lead to socio-economic destabilization." For the year 2025, "more than 59 deaths and 229 cases have been recorded related to hantavirus."

Referring to the WHO's alert concerning a cruise ship immobilized off Cape Verde, the specialist specifies that the current tally is "21 cases of infection, including 8 confirmed by the laboratory and 3 deaths", while a twelfth official case was recently detected in Canada in a passenger from the same ship.

Professor Seydi also details the international management of this crisis, explaining that only three passengers in critical condition were evacuated from Cape Verde by air ambulance. The other travelers disembarked in the British Isles and Spain before being repatriated to Europe and the United States according to strict protocols. Once at their destination, symptomatic patients are cared for in "isolation units, negative pressure rooms," while asymptomatic individuals undergo quarantine. On this point, the Senegalese expert advocates a case-by-case approach, stating that "if home quarantine can be carried out under optimal safety conditions for both the patient and society, there is no reason to impose a 42-day hospital quarantine."

To reassure the general public, who are new to this illness, the head of the SMIT points out that "it's not new," as the virus was isolated thirty years ago. However, it's important to distinguish the different strains geographically. The hantavirus Andes pulmonary or cardiopulmonary syndrome, which is currently in the news, is prevalent mainly in South America, particularly in Argentina and Chile. In the United States and Canada, the "Sin Nombre" strain is more common, causing respiratory syndromes but "without human-to-human transmission." Finally, the hantavirus responsible for "hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome" is prevalent in Europe and Asia.

Regarding the Andes strain, which is at the heart of concerns on the cruise ship, Professor Seydi indicates that it is an RNA virus of animal origin, whose natural reservoir is a South American rodent identified in 1996. According to his analysis, the ship's first patient was "very likely infected in Argentina by aerosols containing the droppings of infected rodents," since the illness manifested only five days after boarding, whereas an incubation period of at least one week is required. Subsequently, the close quarters on board facilitated human-to-human transmission via droplets or aerosols, particularly within a couple of passengers. The source speaking to the newspaper of the Groupe Futurs Médias concludes by noting that while the Andes strain is the only one for which human-to-human transmission has been demonstrated, it is fortunately less easily transmitted "than the COVID-19 virus."