Hantavirus is not considered a pathogen with pandemic potential. However, the outbreak has once again demonstrated that South Africa is not obstructionist, irrational or unreasonable in demanding that pathogen access and benefit sharing be placed on an equal footing in the Pandemic Agreement.

In recent weeks South Africans learnt about the hantavirus, after an outbreak on a cruise ship that had docked on the country's shores. News spread that some passengers were very ill and that a small number of deaths had occurred due to the outbreak. Even so, ill patients were taken from the cruise ship, admitted to South African hospitals and provided with care. South African scientists immediately started mapping the genomic profile of the hantavirus pathogen causing the outbreak.

South African officials reached out to the World Health Organization (WHO) with data about the outbreak. They cooperated in international efforts to do contact tracing and repatriate ill patients to their countries. As they did when informing the world about the Omicron variant, South African scientists once again acted as responsible scientific citizens. Information about the pathogen and the outbreak was shared rapidly and transparently. Sick and symptomatic patients, as well as individuals potentially exposed to the virus, were treated with dignity and in alignment with a human rights-based approach to health. They were not stigmatised or prevented from accessing care.

The hantavirus outbreak brought back difficult memories of the Covid-19 pandemic for many people. It has also underlined the...