Countries scramble to track passengers of hantavirus-hit cruise ship

AMSTERDAM – Countries worldwide on May 7 scrambled to prevent further spread of the hantavirus, after an outbreak on a cruise ship, by tracking those who had already disembarked before the virus was detected and anyone in close contact with them since.

Three people – a Dutch couple and a German national – died due to the outbreak on the MV Hondius. Five of eight suspected cases of hantavirus linked to the vessel have now been confirmed, the World Health Organization (WHO) said at a press briefing on May 7.

The organisation was aware of reports of other patients, said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding that there may be more cases due to the long incubation period of the virus.

All passengers who disembarked in St Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, where the ship made a stop on April 24, have been contacted, the ship’s operator said, adding that the people were from at least 12 countries, among them seven British citizens and six from the US.

The first confirmed case of hantavirus came in early May.

Closely monitoring

Experts stress that contagion is very rare, but the outbreak has put the health authorities on high alert.

The US’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was closely monitoring the situation, adding that the risk to the US public was extremely low at the time.

The Georgia Department of Public Health said it ​was monitoring two asymptomatic residents ​who had returned ⁠home after disembarking from the cruise ship.

The Arizona ⁠Department of Health Services said in a separate e-mailed statement it was monitoring one resident, who was a passenger on the ship, and ⁠not ​symptomatic. According to The New York Times, California is monitoring an undisclosed number of residents who had also been on the ship.

One French citizen has been in contact with a person who had fallen ill but was not showing symptoms, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.

Contact tracing

Oceanwide Expeditions said it was now working to establish the details of all passengers and crew members who embarked and disembarked at various stops since March 20. The Dutch couple who died, and who are believed to have been the first hantavirus cases of this outbreak, boarded the ship only on April 1.

Dutch airline KLM on May 6 said it had taken the Dutch woman off a plane in Johannesburg on April 25 due to her deteriorating medical condition. She died before she could reach the Netherlands.

According to broadcaster RTL, a KLM stewardess who had been in contact with her has now been hospitalised in Amsterdam after showing possible symptoms of a hantavirus infection. The Dutch Health Ministry did not confirm that the woman being tested is a KLM stewardess, and neither did the airline.

Crew members and passengers who helped the Dutch woman who died are being called daily for health checks, the Dutch authorities told public broadcaster NOS.

Evacuations, tests

The virus found in the victims has been confirmed as the Andean strain, which can, in rare cases, spread among humans through very close contact.

Argentina’s Health Ministry has said it will carry out rodent trapping and analysis in the southern city of Ushuaia, the origin point of the cruise ship.

Three patients were evacuated from the ship on May 6. Two have been hospitalised in the Netherlands, while the other person was transferred to Germany for medical care.

Mr Martin Anstee, an expedition guide, was one of the two in hospital in the Netherlands, according to Sky News. He told Sky News he was “doing okay” but “there are still lots of tests to be done”.

The Duesseldorf University Clinic, which is treating the German evacuee, said she was not a confirmed case but rather a contact and was undergoing tests.

In Switzerland, a person admitted to hospital on May 4 was stable but showed symptoms consistent with the hantavirus infection, including low fever, body aches and a cough, the hospital said.

A Danish citizen who was aboard the MV Hondius has returned home and has been advised to self-isolate as a precaution, the Danish health authorities said. The person is assessed to be at low risk, having had no close contact with those who later fell ill.

Ship heads for Spain

The MV Hondius, with dozens still on board, left its position off Cape Verde on May 6, where it had been marooned for days, and is expected to dock in Tenerife, in Spain’s Canary Islands, on May 10, the EU’s Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said.

There is still no one showing any hantavirus symptoms on the ship, the ECDC said.

Once in Tenerife, if they are still healthy, all non-Spanish citizens will be repatriated to their countries, while 14 Spanish passengers will be quarantined in a military hospital in Madrid. REUTERS