Venezuela says hantavirus has killed three people

At least three people in Venezuela died after contracting hantavirus, the health ministry said, while ruling out human-to-human transmission of the rare disease in the country. The ministry said three people with confirmed hantavirus diagnoses died in the northeastern state of Anzoategui. It said there was no scientific evidence of human-to-human transmission in Venezuela. The ministry also rejected any link between those deaths and the deaths of two medical workers in the western state of Barinas, whose cause of death remains undetermined. Hantavirus is a respiratory virus typically spread by rodents and far less commonly between people, and the source said there is no specific treatment. An outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship in April caused a global health scare, and three people aboard the vessel died of the disease. The World Health Organization declared that outbreak officially over in early July. The ship had set sail on April 1 from Argentina, where the Andes strain of the virus, described as the only type known to spread between humans, is endemic in some regions.