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NEW YORK (AP) — Hantaviruses do not spread easily between people, which makes health officials confident the recent outbreak on a cruise ship that has
killed three people will not turn into an epidemic. But, still, they need to make sure. So health officials in several countries are contact tracing: trying to identify and follow people who may have come in contact with passengers who got sick or died.
Hantaviruses usually spread when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings. While human cases are rare, small outbreaks have been documented around the world. However, the Andes virus implicated in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Additionally, viruses can change.Scientists are working to learn more about the virus as quickly as possible, including whether it has mutated and how it spreads. The goal of contact tracing is to alert people who might have been exposed, monitor them for symptoms, and prevent further spread.
This process is complicated by the social and mobile nature of people who frequently interact with others, visit crowded places, and travel. In the cruise ship outbreak, fewer than a dozen people are thought to have shown any symptoms, and there have been only five confirmed cases, but many more may have been exposed.
About 140 people remain on the cruise ship headed for the Canary Islands, where they will disembark, and none has been reported to be sick. However, authorities are trying to reach the dozens of people who left the ship about two weeks after a passenger died, but before authorities were aware of the hantavirus's involvement. These individuals come from at least 12 different countries, including several states in the U.S. — such as Arizona, California, Georgia, and Texas, according to infectious disease experts and state public health officials.
Authorities in St. Helena, the remote British territory where passengers disembarked, stated they are monitoring a small number of individuals considered to be 'higher-risk contacts.' These individuals are advised to isolate for 45 days, as confirmed by the St. Helena government.
British health officials indicated that two passengers who left the ship midway through the journey are self-isolating but show no symptoms. The U.K. Health Security Agency noted that 'a small number' of contacts of these individuals are also self-isolating without exhibiting symptoms.
Health authorities in Singapore are monitoring two men who disembarked at St. Helena and subsequently traveled to South Africa and then home. The men, who arrived in Singapore at different times, are being tested for hantavirus and are isolated at the National Center for Infectious Diseases.
The U.S. government has released limited details regarding its contact tracing efforts. Texas officials stated that public health workers have contacted the two individuals who left the ship on April 24. They reported that they are not experiencing symptoms and did not come into contact with a sick individual while aboard. They committed to monitoring themselves with daily temperature checks and to inform public health officials at any sign of illness.
Two Canadians who disembarked are currently in Ontario and have been advised to self-isolate since their return, according to the province's health minister.
In addition to tracing contacts, scientists are striving to better understand the Andes virus, a member of the hantavirus family found in South America. This virus may be one of the rare hantaviruses capable of human-to-human transmission. Officials in Argentina suspect the first cases may have been contracted during a birdwatching trip in Ushuaia.
While Argentina's Health Ministry has not yet dispatched a team, scientists from the state-funded Malbrán Institute are expected to travel to Ushuaia 'in the coming days,' as reported to The Associated Press.
Researchers are analyzing the virus's genetics to determine if it has changed in ways that enhance its transmissibility. They are also working to clarify how it spreads, with Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, chief executive officer of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, indicating that people are likely most infectious when they exhibit symptoms. If the virus spreads, it may be transmitted through small liquid particles expelled when an infected person talks, coughs, or sneezes.
AP journalists Isabel Debre in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Gerald Imray in Cape Town, South Africa; Rob Gillies in Toronto; Jill Lawless in London; Suman Naishadham in Madrid; and Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
