WHO confirmed the Andes strain of hantavirus in cruise ship passengers, and 3 were removed from the ship for treatment.
Health authorities have identified the Andes strain of hantavirus, which can be transmitted from person to person, in passengers who were on a cruise ship at the center of a deadly outbreak of the rare infection, officials said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, two hantavirus patients and one suspect were taken off the MV Hondius to the Netherlands on Wednesday, the UN health agency said. The ship is still in Cape Verde, with about 150 people, waiting to go to the Canary Islands in Spain.
The ship’s doctor was among the three transferred. The doctor’s condition has improved, Spain’s Ministry of Health said, after he was described earlier in the week as being in critical condition. Oceanwide Expeditions, the ship’s company, also told The Associated Press that the doctor was in stable condition.
The Dutch Foreign Ministry said the three being deported are a 56-year-old Briton, a 41-year-old Dutch national and a 65-year-old German national. The ministry said they will be “immediately transferred to specialized hospitals in Europe.” A Dutch hospital confirmed it would take one, while German authorities said they were preparing for a second.
Two “remain in critical condition,” Oceanwide Expeditions said, while the third had no symptoms but was “closely related” to the German passenger who died on May 2.
There are three suspects #hantavirus patients have just been discharged from the ship and are on their way to receive medical care in the Netherlands in cooperation with @WHOthe ship operator and the national authorities from Cabo Verde, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands.… pic.twitter.com/olQBk6tdGk
The Director General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday confirmed that three patients have been discharged.
“For now, the overall public health risk remains low,” he wrote on his X account.
All passengers remaining on the ship are unaccounted for, and non-Spanish citizens will be sent back to their countries after the ship arrives in Tenerife in the Canary Islands from Cape Verde, Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said on Wednesday.
Garcia said 14 Spaniards will be flown to a hospital in Madrid for isolation. Passengers from other countries will not have to be quarantined in Spain, as the decision rests with the authorities in their countries, he said.
The Hondius passenger roster includes representatives from more than 20 countries, including four Canadian citizens. Global Affairs Canada previously told CBC News there were no reports of Canadians directly affected by the outbreak.
Hantavirus is spread by rodents and, rarely, humans. So far, the Andes strain is the only type of hantavirus for which human-to-human transmission has been confirmed, usually through close contact, such as sharing a bed or food, experts said.
Hantaviruses can cause heart problems among patients and can have a mortality rate of up to 50 percent, WHO said. Hospitalized patients may need supplemental oxygen or medical ventilation.
Human-to-human transmission can occur with difficulty
The WHO said hantavirus has been confirmed in five people on board, and three more cases are suspected.
The number has risen since Tuesday after authorities in Switzerland confirmed another case.
Simon Ming, a spokesman for the Swiss government’s public health office, said in an email to the AP that the patient left the ship during its stop in St. Helena in late April. It is not clear when and how he returned to Switzerland.
The patient’s wife has not shown symptoms but is self-isolating as a precaution, the Swiss statement said. Health experts say the incubation period for the virus is 45 days.
The South African Ministry of Health said in the report of the tests carried out on the passengers who were taken from the MV Hondius to South Africa it confirmed the Andes strain. One of the passengers, a British man, is in intensive care at a Johannesburg hospital, while the other passenger was pronounced dead.
South Africa’s health ministry said officials have so far traced 42 of the 62 people, including health workers, who they believe were in contact with the two infected passengers.
The virus can last for weeks
At the National, CBC News reporter Adrienne Arsenault asked infectious disease expert Dr. Isaac Bogoch to break down how hantavirus spreads and the risk to humans.
The WHO has confirmed that an Andes strain has been found as a result of work carried out in collaboration with health authorities in South Africa, Switzerland, Senegal and Argentina. That species is found in South America, especially in Argentina and Chile.
Health officials have previously said that disinfection measures are being carried out on Hondius, and that as a precaution, passengers have been isolated in their cabins.
The ship left Argentina in late March. The cruise line says the body of a Dutch man suspected of being the first case of hantavirus on board was removed from the ship in St. Helena after a month. The man’s wife was removed from St. Helena was taken to South Africa where she died.
The ship eventually went to Ascension Island, where a British man hospitalized in South Africa was transferred.
There was some confusion about the medical transfer of the three patients to the Netherlands, although Oceanwide Expeditions said it was planned for Wednesday morning.
Officials in Cape Verde in West Africa have refused to allow the ship to put passengers ashore because of the outbreak.
Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemiology and pandemic preparedness and prevention at the World Health Organization said that human infection is rare, and most cases come from contact with infected rats, their waste or saliva.
Late Tuesday, the Spanish Ministry of Health said it had been asked by the WHO to take over the Hondius and gave its agreement “in accordance with international law and humanitarian principles,” and the ship is expected to dock in the Canary island of Tenerife.
The leader of the Canary Islands said he was against the move and requested an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, but the decision was ultimately the responsibility of the central government, which replaces regional authorities.
