Britain gets experimental drug from Japan to bolster hantavirus response
By Bhanvi Satija
LONDON, May 18 (Reuters) – Britain has received supplies of the antiviral drug favipiravir from Japan as part of its response to the deadly hantavirus outbreak linked to the cruise ship Hondius, the United Kingdom’s Health Security Agency said on Monday.
The UKHSA said it had accepted deliveries of the drug, which remains experimental for use in treating hantavirus, at the weekend and that the supplies would bolster stocks of the treatment, although the risk of wider spread in the UK remains very low.
Neither the UKHSA nor Japanese authorities have released details of the number of doses supplied to Britain.
The luxury ship at the center of the outbreak docked in the Dutch port of Rotterdam on Monday, where authorities disembarked crew members and medical staff. Three people have died, with eight confirmed cases and two probable cases linked to the ship.
There is no specific treatment for hantavirus, which is spread mainly by rodents but can be transmitted between humans in rare cases and after prolonged close contact.
While treatment usually focuses on supportive care such as rest and hydration, some patients may need respiratory support.
In Japan, favipiravir is sold under the brand name Avigan by a unit of Fujifilm as an emergency medicine for new or reemerging flu. The drug, which works by blocking an important enzyme required for many viruses to multiply, is not licensed for use in the United Kingdom.
The use of favipiravir in hantavirus is generally considered experimental or compassionate rather than standard of care, most likely treating serious infection early, said Piet Maes, a virologist at the University of Brussels.
Maes said the evidence so far has come only from laboratory and animal studies, with no strong human trial data showing the drug works against hantavirus. There is no internationally established clinical protocol for hantavirus that recommends its routine use.
The outbreak involves a rarer strain of hantavirus called Andes virus, which is the only strain known to spread between humans, usually after close, prolonged contact.
World Health Organization officials have said they have not detected changes that would make the virus more contagious or severe and that the outbreak does not pose a pandemic threat.
(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija in London; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Neil Fullick)
