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Three individuals have died from confirmed hantavirus infections in Venezuela's eastern Anzoategui state, the country's health ministry announced on Tuesday.
Separately, two health professionals in Barinas state also died, though these cases are not linked to the Anzoategui outbreak and remain under investigation.
The ministry stated these are "specific events that do not represent a risk to the health of the community."
They emphasized, "There is no scientific evidence of person-to-person transmission in our country."
Hantaviruses are a group of viruses carried by rodents such as mice and rats and transmitted through their droppings and urine.
Symptoms of hantavirus, including fever, chills and muscle aches, usually show between one and eight weeks after contact with an infected rodent.
This comes as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently concluded its response to a hantavirus outbreak tied to a cruise ship.
AFR-MED SUDÁFRICA-HANTAVIRUS (AP)
Three people died and 13 were infected after coming into contact with the Andes virus, a rare hantavirus strain, during a cruise on MV Hondius.
The cruise departed Argentina for Cape Verde on 1 April before it was hit by a severe outbreak of hantavirus.
No new cases of hantavirus linked to the cruise ship outbreak have been reported since May.
The Dutch public health service said in an update on May: “From a public health perspective, there are no longer any obstacles to putting the ship Hondius into operation. This is evident from the final inspection of the ship on Friday, May 29.