Evacuations planned as suspected hantavirus outbreak traps 150 on ship off Cape Verde
Written by: Olivia Le Poidevin, Toby Sterling, Anthony Deutsch and Charlotte Van Campenhout
AMSTERDAM, GENEVA, May 4 (Reuters) – Health officials tried to evacuate two people showing symptoms of the deadly hantavirus on Monday after a suspected outbreak aboard a luxury cruise ship off the coast of West Africa carrying mostly British, American and Spanish passengers, authorities said.
Officials added that about 150 people were still trapped on the ship after three people, a Dutch couple and a German national, died and others fell ill, including a Briton who left the ship and was treated in South Africa.
The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), which is helping with the outbreak, said hantavirus was confirmed in one of the patients showing symptoms.
A source with knowledge of the matter said that the deceased Dutch woman also tested positive for the virus.
The RIVM said it was still unclear whether other people with symptoms also had the virus or whether the other deaths were also caused by the virus.
Hantavirus, which can cause fatal respiratory diseases, can spread when particles from rodent feces or urine become airborne. It is not easily transmitted between people.
Because there is no specific medication to treat the disease, treatment focuses on supportive care, including putting patients on ventilators in severe cases.
The World Health Organization has said the risk to the general public is low and there is no need for panic or travel restrictions. However, authorities on the island of Cape Verde said that they did not allow the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius to dock as a precaution.
The World Health Organization said in a statement that it had detected seven cases of hantavirus on the luxury cruise ship, including two laboratory-confirmed cases and five suspected cases.
‘THERE ARE A LOT OF UNCERTAINTIES’
“We’re not just making headlines: We’re people with families, with lives, and with people waiting for us at home,” US travel blogger Jake Rosmarin said in a tearful video post shared on Instagram from the ship on Monday.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty, and that’s the hardest part,” he added.
A spokesman for the ship’s Netherlands-based operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said that as a precaution, all passengers were instructed to remain in their cabins to prevent the possible spread of the virus. Although human-to-human transmission is rare, the incubation period can last several weeks, meaning some people may not yet show symptoms.
Oceanwide Expeditions was trying to arrange the repatriation of two crew members, one British and one Dutch, who showed symptoms of the disease, the body of the German national, and “a guest closely related to the deceased” who did not have symptoms.
The company said it was investigating whether passengers could be screened and dropped off on the islands of Las Palmas and Tenerife.
Spanish authorities said they have not yet received a request for the ship to dock there and disembark passengers. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which Oceanwide Expeditions said would make the request, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hondius left Ushuaia in southern Argentina in March for a journey marketed as an Antarctic nature cruise, with mooring prices ranging from 14,000 to 22,000 euros ($16,000-$25,000), according to company documents.
Passing the Antarctic mainland, the Falklands, South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan, St Helena and Ascension, it reached the waters of Cape Verdean on 3 May.
The South African Ministry of Health confirmed that two of the dead were Dutch nationals: a 70-year-old man who died in St Helena on April 11 and his 69-year-old wife, who collapsed and died at OR Tambo International Airport in South Africa.
Oceanwide Expeditions said the British man, who was being treated at a private clinic in Johannesburg, fell ill on April 27, while the German victim on board died on May 2.
SOURCE NOT YET SPECIFIED
Hantavirus usually begins with flu-like symptoms, such as fatigue and fever, one to eight weeks after exposure.
A spokesperson for the RIVM said that the source of the outbreak was unclear.
“For example, you could imagine the rats on the ship transmitting the virus,” he said.
“But another possibility is that during a stopover somewhere in South America, people were infected, for example, by rats, and that’s how they got sick.”
Daniel Bausch, a visiting professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland, said there is some evidence of human-to-human transmission of Andean Virus, a type of hantavirus found in Argentina and Chile.
“Therefore, it is important that this cruise ship begins its journey in Argentina,” he said.
“The good news is… this is not going to be a major outbreak,” he added.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, Toby Sterling, Anthony Deutsch, Stephanie van den Berg in Geneva, Charlotte Van Campenhout in Amsterdam, Olivia Kumwenda in Johannesburg, additional reporting by David Latone in Madrid and Padmanabhan Ananthan in Bengaluru; Editing by Miranda Murray, Andrew Heavens, Aidan Lewis and Tasim Zahid)
