EU secures emergency deliveries of potential treatment against hantavirus

May 28 (Reuters) - The ‌first doses ​of ​an experimental antiviral for hantavirus treatment are being dispatched to France, Spain and the ‌Netherlands, the European Commission said on Thursday.

In ⁠the absence of a specific treatment for hantavirus, the European ‌Medicines Agency identified favipiravir ‌as the most plausible candidate for use under clinical trial or compassionate use protocols, the Commission ​said in a statement.

• Fujifilm Pharmaceuticals in Japan donated 1,400 tablets of favipiravir, which ⁠France, Spain and the Netherlands had requested.

• The European Union is launching ​emergency procurement procedures to secure additional doses in case further hantavirus cases are confirmed ​in the coming weeks.

• Thirteen ‌people so far have tested positive for hantavirus linked to a cruise ⁠ship at the centre of the outbreak. They are being treated in the Netherlands, France and Spain, as ⁠well as Switzerland, the United States and South Africa.

• Rodent-borne ​hantaviruses can cause illness. The WHO estimates as many as 100,000 human cases occur globally each year.

• The virus ‌can be deadly, though severity depends on the strain and it does not ‌easily pass from person to person.

• Three people ⁠have died since the ‌start of the ​latest outbreak.

(Reporting by Mathias de Rozario in Gdansk; Editing by Makini Brice and Barbara ‌Lewis)

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