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CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — An outbreak of the rare hantavirus unfolded over weeks on a cruise ship as it sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. At least
three passengers have died and several others are sick and were evacuated from the ship. Health authorities are trying to trace passengers who left the ship previously and people who might have had contact with them.
More than 140 passengers and crew members are still aboard the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius as it heads for Spain's Canary Islands.Hantavirus is a rodent-borne infection that in rare cases can be transmitted from person to person, though the World Health Organization says the risk to the wider public is low because the virus can’t easily be passed between people.
The ship set off from Ushuaia in the far south of Argentina on April 1, with scheduled stops including Antarctica and several isolated South Atlantic Ocean islands.
On April 6, a 70-year-old Dutch man became sick on board with fever, headache, and mild diarrhea. Before boarding, the man and his wife had gone sightseeing in Ushuaia and traveled elsewhere in Argentina and Chile, according to the WHO.
By April 11, the Dutch man developed respiratory distress and died on board, with the cause of death undetermined at the time, according to the cruise company.
On April 15, six people joined the cruise when the ship stopped at the remote archipelago of Tristan da Cunha, a British territory in the South Atlantic, while the Dutch man's body remained on board.
The man's body was taken off the vessel at the island of St. Helena on April 24, where his wife disembarked along with more than two dozen other passengers, marking the end of the cruise for some.
On April 25, the Dutch woman, showing symptoms of illness, took a commercial flight from St. Helena to South Africa. The plane carried 88 passengers and crew members, though it remains unclear how many others from the MV Hondius took that flight.
The Dutch woman died in South Africa after collapsing at an airport while attempting to board another plane on April 26.
On April 27, back on the ship, a third passenger, a British man, fell ill and was evacuated to Ascension Island. He was later moved to South Africa, where he was placed in intensive care with a high fever, shortness of breath, and signs of pneumonia, which can be caused by hantavirus.
Another passenger, a German woman, fell sick on board as the ship sailed for Cape Verde off Africa's west coast on April 28.
On May 2, the German woman died onboard, nearly a month after the first passenger fell ill, marking the third fatality. On the same day, South African health authorities received a positive hantavirus test result from the British man in intensive care, marking the first identification of the virus in the outbreak.
The World Health Organization announced on May 3 that it was responding to a suspected hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship, which had arrived in Cape Verde waters.
On May 4, South African health officials received a posthumous positive result for hantavirus for the Dutch woman who died after collapsing at the airport, prompting them to test her body following the positive test on the British man.
By May 5, the cruise ship faced a standoff with Cape Verde authorities regarding the evacuation of more sick individuals and the disembarkation of other passengers and crew members. Cape Verde was sending health workers to the ship to assist but prohibited disembarkation. Two crew members on board were seriously ill, including the ship's doctor, while another person was being monitored.
On May 6, three individuals, two of whom tested positive for hantavirus, were evacuated from the ship and flown to specialized hospitals in Europe. The ship then set sail for Spain's Canary Islands after the country agreed to accept it.
Swiss authorities reported another positive hantavirus test for a man who had left the cruise earlier in St. Helena, raising confirmed cases to five. Health authorities in South Africa and Switzerland indicated that it was the Andes virus, the only hantavirus believed to spread from human to human, primarily found in South America, particularly Argentina and Chile.
On May 7, health authorities across Switzerland, Britain, the Netherlands, France, Singapore, South Africa, and other locations began isolating individuals who had previously left the cruise ship and tracing those who might have come into contact with the passengers.
