There’s good and bad news on the hantavirus cruise ship front.
As of Wednesday morning, health officials have finally identified the exact species of hantavirus responsible for the outbreak aboard the MV Hondius. Additionally, three people suspected of having the disease have been medically evacuated—including the ship’s doctor. On the more negative side, however, a French citizen may have contracted the virus from a flight they shared with an infected Hondius passenger—seemingly the first case transmitted person-to-person outside the ship.
The patients “are on their way to receive medical care in the Netherlands in coordination with WHO, the ship’s operator and national authorities from Cabo Verde, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday.
A known species and new cases
Health officials in South Africa were the first to identify the species, the Andes virus. The virus was found in two people who left the cruise ship: a Dutch woman who died following her severe illness and a British man still receiving intensive care at a hospital in Johannesburg.
Hantavirus infections are typically transmitted through contact with infected rodents or their droppings/urine. But the Andes virus is the only known species thought capable of spreading between people. Outbreaks of human-to-human transmission of Andes virus are rare but have predominantly occurred in South America. The woman was a close contact of a man currently believed to have been the first case of the outbreak; both had traveled through South America before boarding the Hondius on April 1, which was scheduled for a multi-stop cruise from Argentina to Cape Verde, off the coast of western Africa.
The man died four days after he first fell ill in April but was never tested for potential infections. The woman left the cruise on April 24 and arrived in Saint Helena while also feeling sick with gastrointestinal symptoms. She quickly deteriorated and died two days later, but not before boarding a flight to Johannesburg, South Africa.
As of May 4, there were two confirmed and five suspected cases of hantavirus among the Hondius passengers and crew. Of these, three have died following a bout of illness. On Wednesday morning, Swiss and WHO health officials reported a third confirmed and eighth overall case, involving a Swiss citizen who had left the ship. The man has reportedly been isolated and is receiving care at the University Hospital Zurich.
The Sun also reported today that a potential ninth case, involving a French citizen who shared a flight with the Dutch woman, has been documented. However, the article currently does not cite an official source for the report. Gizmodo has reached out to the WHO and the French National Public Health Agency for comment on this possible case but did not hear back before publication.
The fate of Hondius
The remaining passengers and crew aboard the cruise ship are reportedly not showing any signs of illness. Until recently, the ship had been moored just outside of Cape Verde. The Spanish government is planning for the ship to travel to the Granadilla port in Tenerife, the largest city in the Canary Islands, where the passengers would be evacuated. Spanish passengers would then be quarantined at a military base in Madrid, while other passengers would be sent home if deemed free of infection (the virus can take several weeks to become symptomatic following exposure).
However, Fernando Clavijo, the president of the Canary Islands, has apparently rejected this plan, stating that Spanish officials have not communicated adequately with his government.
“This decision is not based on any technical criteria, nor is there sufficient information to reassure the public or guarantee their safety,” Clavijo told radio station COPE, Reuters reported Wednesday.
The identification of the Andes virus in this outbreak was expected but important to confirm. For starters, it rules out other potentially alarming scenarios, like the emergence of a novel hantavirus species or a variant of a known species that has better adapted to humans. The Andes virus also still predominantly spreads through rodent exposure, and cases of human-to-human transmission have typically required close, prolonged contact with infected people.
However, there have been outbreaks where the Andes virus is suspected to have spread relatively easily between people. And given this latest potential case involving a flight passenger, it’s certainly possible such a situation has happened again. So while the danger to the general public is still low, we may not be out of the woods just yet.
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