HANTAVIRUS: IS NIGERIA READY?
PAT ONUKWULI argues the need to strengthen surveillance, sanitation and public awareness
Nigeria has no confirmed case of hantavirus, and the current public risk remains low. But as Spain evacuates passengers from the MV Hondius, a cruise ship linked to a hantavirus outbreak after arriving in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Nigeria must not confuse distance with safety. In a world where infections can cross borders faster than official warnings, the time to strengthen surveillance, sanitation and public awareness is before danger arrives.
Hantavirus is not yet a familiar name in Nigeria. It does not carry the public memory of Ebola, the political weight of COVID-19, or the recurring fear associated with Lassa fever. Yet unfamiliarity should never be mistaken for irrelevance. Some diseases announce themselves loudly; others move quietly until they expose the cracks in a country’s public health system.
The present concern is a multi-country cluster linked to this MV Hondius, a Dutch-flagged cruise ship. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says the ship had passengers and crew from 23 countries, including nine European Union and European Economic Area countries, and has issued guidance for managing those potentially exposed to Andes hantavirus. Reuters reports that all passengers on the affected ship are being treated as high-risk contacts as a precaution, with repatriation arranged through special transport rather than commercial flights.
Spain is central to the current response because the ship arrived near Tenerife. Spanish passengers were among those evacuated first, while other affected or involved countries include the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Ireland, France, Singapore, South Africa and others connected through passengers, crew, medical evacuation, quarantine or contact tracing. Argentina and Chile are also important because Andes hantavirus is endemic in parts of those countries, and investigators are examining possible exposure before the voyage.
This does not mean the world is facing another COVID-style pandemic. Health authorities continue to describe the wider public risk as low. But low risk is no risk. The lesson for Nigeria is not panic; it is preparedness.
Hantavirus is mainly a rodent-borne virus. People may become infected through exposure to the urine, droppings or saliva of infected rodents, especially when contaminated dust is inhaled in enclosed spaces. Homes, farms, warehouses, food stores, markets, camps, abandoned buildings and grain stores can become risk environments where rodent control is weak.
The virus is not new. Its name is traced to the Hantaan River area in Korea, where early scientific attention focused on a severe rodent-borne illness. Different hantaviruses have since been identified worldwide. In Europe and Asia, they are often associated with kidney-related disease. In the Americas, including areas of Argentina and Chile, some strains are associated with severe illness affecting the lungs and heart. The common thread remains rodents.
This is where Nigeria must pay attention. The country is already familiar with rodent-borne disease. Lassa fever has taught that rats are not merely household pests; they can carry serious infections. In many Nigerian communities, poor waste disposal, open drainage, overcrowded markets, unsafe food storage and weak sanitation create the conditions in which rodents thrive. Hantavirus may not be in Nigeria today, but the environmental conditions that support rodent-borne infections are already present. Blocked gutters, refuse heaps, poorly covered grain stores, crowded markets and homes invaded by rodents are not theoretical risks. They are everyday realities.
Nigeria must turn its borders, clinics, and laboratories into a single early-warning system. Airports, seaports and land borders should screen seriously for travel history, rodent exposure, unusual fever, breathing difficulty and kidney-related symptoms. Health workers must also be trained to look beyond the usual malaria-or-typhoid reflex when fever presents with strange or severe patterns. Above all, laboratories must be ready to quickly confirm uncommon infections, because in outbreak control, what is not suspected is rarely found, and what is not detected early can spread like wildfire.
Public communication is equally important. Nigerians do not need panic; they need clear, calm and practical information. People should keep homes and surroundings clean, store food in sealed containers, block rodent entry points, avoid touching dead rodents with bare hands, ventilate closed rooms before cleaning, avoid sweeping dry rodent droppings into the air, use disinfectant where contamination is suspected and seek medical care early when serious symptoms appear.
The government must also treat environmental sanitation as a public health priority, not as a ceremonial monthly exercise. Markets, gutters, abattoirs, motor parks and refuse points must not remain open invitations to rodents. Local governments should take waste collection, drainage clearing, pest control and market sanitation seriously. Public health cannot survive on press statements alone; it must be visible in clean markets, functional drains and responsive primary health centres.
The broader lesson is that hantavirus lies at the intersection of human health, animal health and the environment. This makes a robust One Health approach essential, bringing together public health authorities, veterinary experts, environmental officers, researchers, community leaders and local governments. Disease prevention cannot rest on hospitals alone; it must also extend to the places where people live, trade, store food and dispose of waste.
The question is not whether Nigeria should panic. It should not. The question is whether Nigeria can prepare before it is forced to react. Hantavirus may never become an epidemic in Nigeria, and that would be welcome. But such an outcome should not depend on luck. It should depend on readiness. If the threat has not yet reached Nigeria’s doorstep, prudence demands that the country strengthen its defences before it arrives.
. Dr. Onukwuli is a legal scholar and public affairs analyst. patonukwuli2003@yahoo.co.uk
