India, May 8 -- Hantavirus, a rodent-borne infection that in rare cases can be transmitted from person to person, has sparked alarm globally after an outbreak - in which three cases turned fatal - unfolded over weeks on a cruise ship as it sailed across the Atlantic Ocean.

The concerns worldwide, years after Covid outbreak, prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to address a press briefing on Thursday on the cruise ship outbreak to say that the risk to the wider public is low because the virus can't easily be passed between people.

The first case in the hantavirus outbreak on the Dutch-flagged cruise ship MV Hondius, carrying about 150 tourists from various countries, was identified on May 2, when a sick deboarded passenger was te...