UN News Today 08 May 2026 |

Deadly hantavirus outbreak is not a new COVID, insists UN health agency

The risk of hantavirus spreading to the general population is “absolutely low”, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) stressed on Friday. 

“This is not COVID,” a WHO spokesperson told journalists at a briefing in Geneva, as the agency continues to coordinate the response to the deadly outbreak on a cruise liner moored in Cabo Verde. 

Three people have died and several others have fallen ill aboard the Dutch-flagged ship the Hondius, prompting a major international public health response involving countries across Europe, Africa and Latin America.

From the UN health agency, here’s spokesperson Christian Lindmeier: 

“Let’s not forget from couples who were close…from a flight attendant who handled the sick woman who just shortly after died and was feeling extremely unwell, we get negative test results. That should convince nearly everybody now that this is a dangerous virus, but only to the person who is really infected. And it’s the risk to the general population remains absolutely low.”

Eight cases of infection have been reported so far, including five laboratory-confirmed infections and three suspected cases linked to the rare Andes strain of hantavirus, according to WHO.

Mr. Lindmeier stressed that even people who had been sharing cabins were not infected in some cases, adding that the virus is “not spreading anything close to how COVID was spreading”.

Lebanon war leaves families foraging for food despite shaky ceasefire

The fragile ceasefire in Lebanon hasn’t prevented “ongoing killing and displacement”, while villages in the south of the country are now “completely unrecognizable” after Israeli strikes, aid teams reported on Friday.

According to the Lebanese authorities, more than 2,700 people have been killed since 2 March, amid clashes between Hezbollah fighters and the Israeli military. 

Hezbollah – which is not part of the Lebanese military – began firing rockets into northern Israel after the war against Iran started on 28 February.

Twenty-five of the more than 380 people killed in Lebanon since the 17 April ceasefire began were women. 

This highlights the dangers they face attempting to return home “under the perceived safety of the ceasefire”, said UN Women’s Moez Doraid, Regional Director for Arab States:

“Continued Israeli airstrikes, evacuation orders, bans to return to certain areas, and movement restrictions mean most people still cannot go back to their homes… One woman described her village was completely unrecognizable because of the destruction it has suffered,” he told journalists. 

Speaking from Beirut via video link, Mr. Doraid urged the international community to “stand by these women and girls, men and boys to bring back the hope”.

So far during this latest escalation, the UN has negotiated the movement of 19 convoys to south Lebanon with enough relief supplies for 84,500 people. 

But fewer than one in two requests are approved according to the UN World Food Programme, WFP.

Strait of Hormuz crisis linked to looming famine in Somalia 

To Somalia, which is being pushed ever closer to famine, in part because of the shipping crunch in the Strait of Hormuz, caused by war in the Middle East.

Today, six million people, or almost one in three Somalis, already face acute hunger. 

Among them, two million are “one step from famine”, said Matthew Hollingworth from the UN World Food Programme, WFP:

“One of the things that we faced in terms of the impact of the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, we face global supply chain issues. But just in Somalia itself, containers of therapeutic food, ready to use supplementary food that were due to come into Somalia, arrive 40 days late because of the impact on global shipping on supply chains.”

Across Somalia, aid teams report that families are unable to cope with repeated extreme weather shocks, conflict and economic pressure.

WFP’s Mr. Hollingworth said that the warning signs were unmistakable, particularly in Puntland, where water resources “have completely dried up”.

He described a health centre about an hour’s drive from Garowe town where some mothers had walked “hundreds of kilometres from communities where livelihoods have been entirely wiped out”, only to find that “organizations they could once count on for support” were no longer able to help them.

WFP is only able to reach one in 10 people in need of food assistance, it could reach more with greater support.

“We’re at a point where a massive emergency response is urgently needed to prevent a worsening situation,” Mr. Hollingworth stressed.

Daniel Johnson, UN News