WHO chief tells Tenerife that risk from hantavirus-hit ship is 'low' Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, published a direct message on Saturday to the people of Tenerife, where MV Hodius, the cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak, is set to dock early Sunday. Here is his message in full: My name is Tedros, and I serve as the director-general of the World Health Organization, the United Nations agency responsible for global public health.
It is not common for me to write directly to the people of a single community, but today I feel it is not only appropriate, it is necessary. I want to speak to you directly, not through press releases or technical briefings, but as one human being to another, because you deserve that.
I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word “outbreak” and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest.
The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment. But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another Covid.
The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now.