Hantavirus-hit liner reaches Rotterdam, crew being quarantined and ship disinfected

ROTTERDAM - A luxury liner at the centre of an outbreak of hantavirus docked at the Dutch port of Rotterdam on May 18, where the authorities were disembarking the remaining 25 crew members and two medical staff and planned to cremate a German woman who died.

The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius cruise ship was to be disinfected.

It had been carrying around 150 passengers and crew from 23 countries when a cluster of severe respiratory illnesses among passengers was first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) on May 2.

Three people have died. The bodies of a Dutch couple have been repatriated, while a German victim was to be cremated in the Netherlands with her ashes then sent home.

Including the three deaths, there have been eight confirmed and two probable cases on board, according to the WHO.

Hantavirus is primarily spread by rodents but can be transmitted between people ​in rare cases and after prolonged, close contact. Incubation can last about six weeks.

There is no specific treatment for infection.

The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) said that none of the people coming off the boat were showing symptoms.

“Upon arrival in Rotterdam, these people disembark in a phased and controlled manner,” it said.

The MV Hondius arrived at Landtong, a narrow peninsula about 10km long that is part of the port of Rotterdam and far from any urban centre. Several white trailers were set up in an area near where disembarkation was taking place. Both areas were fenced off.

‘No risk’

The WHO insists the wider threat to public health remains low and there is no comparison with the Covid-19 pandemic.

“There is no risk for Rotterdam and no risk in that sense,” said Mr Tjalling Leenstra, head of the Dutch coordination centre for communicable disease control at RIVM.

All those exposed are under monitoring and quarantine, he added.

The vessel, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, had been stranded off Cape Verde, its intended final destination, earlier in May after the authorities barred passengers from going ashore due to the outbreak.

The WHO and European Union asked Spain to manage the evacuation at the Canary Islands, after which the ship departed for Rotterdam with a skeleton crew of 25 people and two additional medical staff.

Two Dutch crew members were going home for quarantine, with other mainly Filipino staff to quarantine in mobile home units in the Rotterdam area, director Yvonne van Duijnhoven of the GGD Rotterdam-Rijnmond municipal health service said.

Cleaning of the vessel by a specialised company could take up to a week, RIVM said.

“They wear protective clothing and clean all surfaces in the ship, including the ventilation systems, and each room is assessed individually,” said RIVM spokesman Coen Berends, adding that cabins of people who tested positive would be considered high-risk areas.

The outbreak involves the so-called Andes virus, a strain which has circulated in Argentina and Chile for decades.

Other crew, passengers and people in contact with them have also been quarantined in several other countries. REUTERS