Inside an African lab that helped crack the hantavirus outbreak

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]This biomedical research center in Senegal is one of the labs that helped crack the hantavirus outbreak. In early May, a cruise ship became stranded off Cape Verde with passengers suspected of infection with a deadly strain of the virus. The ship had stopped at several remote islands and the World Health Organization needed answers. A plane with specimens collected from the suspected cases on board landed in Senegal on May 5th at the Institut Pasteur de Dakar. Scientists worked through the night. Within 24 hours, they had produced a partial genome showing the illness affecting the passengers, the Andes strain of hantavirus.

[00:00:42]That matched findings from labs in South Africa and Switzerland. The WHO announced the findings at a press conference. The role of the West African lab has not previously been described in detail and shows how global research networks can help contain outbreaks.

[00:00:59]Dr. Moussa Moise Dan is a virologist and head of the sequencing platform at Institut Pasteur. It's crucial to have in different parts of the world the capacity and the capabilities to detect versus different pathogens, different threats, to identify the etiologies.

[00:01:16]I know that the boat was close to South Africa and NICD did the the confirmation. It was close to Cape Verde and the samples were shipped to to Dakar, IPD in Senegal, Institut Pasteur Dakar, Senegal. And we also we also we also be able to make the the confirmation, the diagnostic, and the genetic characterization. This is really impactful because it shortened the turnaround time. It's really important for the clinical case management, but also for the contact tracing. This is really really key.

[00:01:49]A few days after the initial tests, laboratories worldwide compared sequences to identify mutations that could affect how the virus behaves. How quickly it could spread was a critical question. Fortunately, no significant mutations were found compared to a 2018 outbreak in Argentina. Now we have to continue to work together with different labs involved to better understand our better resolution what's happened.

[00:02:14]Because the most important thing now is to know what is the windows of exposition in in Latin America because we're all in in Latin America the moment. I mean, we need to know what is the real source of infection.

[00:02:30]And this is what is done with our collaborators in Chile and Argentina alongside the people from Netherlands, from Switzerland and from South Africa among others. Questions remain including where and when first infections occurred.

[00:02:49]Those answers will be key to preventing further spread beyond endemic areas.

[00:02:54]The hantavirus outbreak has highlighted the role of global laboratory networks, many of which including the Institut Pasteur have recently lost funding for pandemic prevention.