ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the EU's infectious disease surveillance agency based in Stockholm) published updated Andes hantavirus surveillance data on 12 May, recording 11 cases (9 confirmed, 2 probable) and 3 deaths across 6 countries linked to the MV Hondius cluster .1 The figure is three cases higher than the 8 reported in WHO DON 600, revised on 9 May. Both agencies draw on national contact-tracing reports from the same six affected countries. The gap reflects a three-day reporting lag, with WHO's figure representing the state as of 9 May and ECDC's representing Tuesday 12 May. Neither agency has publicly attributed the discrepancy to differing case-definition thresholds, though that remains a secondary possibility.
ECDC had published a Technical Assessment Brief on 6 May and issued passenger management guidance on 9 May, operationalising the WHO risk upgrade within the EU/EEA context. PAHO had warned five months before the voyage that hantavirus incidence across the Southern Cone was rising with higher case fatality than baseline ; ECDC's rapid technical assessment and the WHO/ECDC count divergence together illustrate the multi-agency coordination demand that Andes events impose on health systems accustomed to treating hantaviruses as single-country, rodent-only transmission events.
The ECDC CDTR (Communicable Disease Threats Report) Week 20 edition, expected 16-17 May, will likely carry the next formal case-count reconciliation and may formally confirm or exclude the Tristan da Cunha suspected case. Until that edition, the published count will continue to diverge between WHO and ECDC, with ECDC's figures the more recent.
