If COVID-19 signalled genomic epidemiology’s coming of age, scientists identifying strains of the SARS-CoV-2 by virtue of their genetic design in almost real time, the 2026 hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius was further proof that, six years on, the discipline had been become part of the DNA of global disease-tracking. Within days of illnesses and deaths being reported on the vessel, laboratories as far afield as Switzerland, South Africa, Senegal, and the Netherlands had in quick succession run sequences, laying out the entire genomic make-up of the pathogen behind the outbreak.
They found, and then confirmed, that passengers on the vessel had been struck down by the Andes virus (ANDV), the only one of the group of hantaviruses known to be spread between humans. They even helped identify the index case, or patient zero, as an elderly Dutch ornithologist who was the first fatality of the outbreak.
At a webinar hosted by PHA4GE and the International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN) on 20 May, representatives from the laboratories behind the sequencing recounted their efforts, and shared their findings. Speaking on the challenges they faced in working with what was to their laboratories a new virus, often starting off with limited samples, and the innovations they introduced to overcome the technological hurdles, were Dr Moussa Diagne of the Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Senegal; Dr Jonathan Featherston of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, South Africa; Dr Isabella Eckerle of the Swiss National Reference Centre for Emerging Viral Infections in Geneva; and Dr Bas Oude Munnink of the Erasmus University Medical Centre in The Netherlands.
More familiar with the virus was Prof Gustavio Palacios of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in the US who, among other things, was one of the authors of a 2020 study that outlined the person-to-person transmission of the Andes virus hantavirus pulmonary syndrome that occurred in Argentina from November 2018 to February 2019. Prof Palacios kicked off the webinar with an introduction to the rodent-borne Andes virus, outbreaks which up to now had largely been reported in South America.
There was consensus among the speakers that reaching out to each other aided their work, as did coordination by the World Health Organisation (WHO), who oversaw the outbreak response. They were also ebullient about the global partnerships forged and reinforced over the course of the outbreak.
“I do think that all of the questions and answers, and the perspectives provided by both the speakers and the panellists today, really highlight the role that genomic epidemiology and sequencing can play in outbreaks like this,” summed up facilitator, Dr Emma Hodcroft of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) at the University of Basel.
Find the complete webinar on YouTube.
