Hantavirus cruise gains attention; global health updates

Hello from Nairobi.This week’s newsletter is heavy on the ongoing hantavirus outbreak. I’m fascinated by this story. Not because the virus itself looks like it will become a global emergency (I strongly believe it won’t), but because the story around it has taken on a force of its own. We’ll also cover Indonesia’s push to eliminate a type of cancer, fake rumors of shrinking genitals in central Africa, and the spiraling health crisis in Cuba.My name is William Herkewitz, and I’m a journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya. This is the Global Health Checkup, where I highlight five of the week’s most important stories on outbreaks, medicine, science, and survival from around the world.With that, as we say in Swahili: karibu katika habari — welcome to the news.The hantavirus outbreak … breaks out of health newsLast week, I wrote about the hantavirus outbreak as a marginal item. An interesting story, but not quite a major event.Since then, I’ve been gobsmacked by how far this story has traveled. N