The Minister of Health ensures that Hantavirus patients at RSPI Sulianti Saroso have returned home.

ILLUSTRATION/DOK CDC

JAKARTA - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin confirmed that the Hantavirus patient who was treated at the Sulianti Saroso Infectious Disease Hospital (RSPI) had returned home.

"So it's actually the person who was identified as being on the ship. We were warned by the British government that there was one British person who came to Indonesia because he was working," said Health Minister Budi Gunadi, quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, June 6.

Once his party found out, said the Minister of Health, the patient was isolated at the Sulianti Saroso RSPI. After being identified, he continued, there was no transmission.

"The contact tracing has been seen and everything has also been checked," said Health Minister Budi Gunadi.

He explained that Hantavirus has been around since the beginning of 2000-and seroprevalence tests have been carried out, namely tests on a population to find out the number of individuals who have specific antibodies in their blood serum.

"It has been tested for seroprevalence surveys like COVID, in areas such as Bali 16 percent, already have antibodies. Surabaya, Jakarta areas, have 13 percent. So this is not a new virus. It has been in Indonesia before and thank God, the fatality rate is very low," said the Minister of Health.

Previously, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday (22/5) reported the latest developments related to the Hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship, with the number of reported cases increasing to 12.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Netherlands had confirmed one additional case involving a crew member who disembarked in Tenerife, Spain, then returned to the Netherlands, and has since been in isolation.

"Currently there are 12 reported cases and three reported deaths. There have been no new deaths reported since May 2, when the outbreak was first reported to the WHO," said Tedros.

"We continue to urge affected countries to monitor all passengers and crew members carefully during the rest of the quarantine period," said Tedros.

More than 600 contacts are being monitored in 30 countries and a small number of high-risk contacts are still being tracked.