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Medical staff will focus on evacuating two sick people from a ship affected by the deadly hantavirus outbreak, the World Health Organization said at a briefing on Tuesday.
The Dutch-flagged vessel MV Hondius is currently detained in the Atlantic off Cape Verde. WHO officials said that while there may be person-to-person transmission that occurs between people in close contact on board, the virus does not spread as easily as the flu or COVID-19.
“When we see couples who have spent a long time together and both are infected, it is possible that they have a common source of the virus and one is infected faster than the other, or one infects the other,” Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemiology and pandemic preparedness and prevention at the World Health Organization, told reporters in Geneva.
However, as a precaution, passengers aboard the Hondius have been instructed to stay inside their rooms, the WHO said, adding that the incubation period can last several weeks, meaning some people may not yet show symptoms.
Some 20 nationalities are represented among the nearly 150 people on board. In an email to CBC News early Monday, Global Affairs Canada said Canadian embassy officials are in contact with local authorities and that there are no reports of Canadians being directly affected by the outbreak. Four Canadians are believed to be on board.
An outbreak of suspected hantavirus on a luxury cruise ship off the coast of South Africa has left at least three people dead and many others sick. At the National, CBC reporter Adrienne Arsenault asks infectious disease expert Dr. Isaac Bogoch to break down how the virus spreads and the risk to humans.
1 passenger is asymptomatic
Hantavirus is usually spread to humans from infected rodents and is rarely passed between humans. Thousands of cases are reported worldwide each year and limited human transmission of Andes virus, a type of hantavirus found in Argentina and Chile, “has been reported in public places involving close and long-term contact,” WHO said.
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at Toronto General Hospital, told CBC News that Canada sees about three to five cases a year, usually in the Prairies.
At least three people have died and three others have fallen ill since May 4 in what the World Health Organization says is a suspected hantavirus outbreak on the ship. The WHO has confirmed at least one case on board the MV Hondius and that a passenger was airlifted to a hospital in South Africa.
Epidemiological investigations were ongoing to determine the source of the disease, WHO said. Medical teams in Cape Verde are examining patients and collecting additional samples for testing.
Van Kerkhove said this is the first cluster of hantavirus known to occur among ship passengers, but the working assumption at this time is that the initial infection occurred on the ship. The ship’s operator never reported any rodent infestation, nor did disinfection measures take place.
The luxury cruise departed from the southern tip of Argentina in late March and visited the Antarctic peninsula as well as South Georgia and Tristan da Cunha – some of the most remote islands in the world.
The seven confirmed or suspected cases include three people who have died – a Dutch couple and a German – and a British national who is in intensive care at a South African hospital.
Van Kerkhove said that in addition to the two people who are expected to be transported to the Netherlands, the person who reported that he has a mild fever is considered a presumptive case, without symptoms.
Van Kerkhove stressed that “it cannot be the case” that everyone on board is at the same level of risk.
There is no specific treatment for hantavirus although breathing problems are often reported in patients, meaning supplemental oxygen or mechanical ventilation may be required.
The ship sailed weeks ago
The operator of the ship, Oceanwide Expeditions, said there is no specific plan at the moment to disembark the remaining guests from the ship. It confirmed that this will not be done in Cape Verde.
A spokesman for Spain’s Ministry of Health told Reuters they had not yet received a request to dock in the Canary Islands.
The Dutch couple who died first had traveled through South America, including Argentina, before boarding the ship.
The suspect died on April 11. His body remained until April 24, when it was “disembarked in St. Helena, with his wife accompanying the repatriation,” Oceanwide Expeditions said.
His wife, who had stomach symptoms at the time of landing, later collapsed during the flight to Johannesburg. He died on arrival at the emergency department on April 26, the WHO said, adding that contact tracing continues for passengers on that flight.
The Hondius left Ushuaia in southern Argentina in March, according to company documents, on trips marketed as Antarctic nature tours, with prices ranging from 14,000 to 22,000 euros ($22,000 to $39,000 Cdn).
