Countries scramble to track passengers of virus-hit cruise ship
Bart H. Meijer
Updated ,first published
Amsterdam: Countries around the world scrambled Thursday to track down more than two dozen people who left a hantavirus-hit cruise ship before becoming stranded off the coast of Cape Verde, in a bid to prevent further spread of the disease.
Three people, a Dutch couple and a German citizen, died in the epidemic on MV Hondius. According to the World Health Organization, eight people, including a Swiss citizen, are suspected of having the virus.
The ship’s operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said Thursday that 29 passengers left the ship in Saint Helena, where the ship had stopped en route to Cape Verde before the outbreak was reported. The Dutch government put this figure at approximately 40 people.
Oceanwide Expeditions said the people who left the ship to return to their home countries were from at least 12 different nationalities. It was also stated that there were two people whose nationalities were unknown.
The whereabouts of most of these passengers are unknown.
One of those who went ashore on Saint Helena was the wife of the Dutchman who died on the ship on April 11. He also fell ill and died before reaching the Netherlands.
Oceanwide Expeditions had not previously acknowledged that dozens more people left the ship at that time.
Dutch airline KLM said on Wednesday that it removed the woman from its flight in Johannesburg on April 25 due to her deteriorating health condition.
A KLM stewardess who had been in contact with him was admitted to a hospital in Amsterdam after showing possible symptoms of hantavirus infection, according to broadcaster RTL.
The Dutch Ministry of Health did not mention her job or who she might have been in contact with, but confirmed that a Dutch woman had been hospitalized and would be tested to determine whether she was infected with hantavirus.
A KLM spokesman said the company “cannot discuss individual cases” due to privacy concerns.
The virus found in the victims was confirmed to be the Andean strain, which can spread between people through very close contact.
Experts have stressed that transmission is very rare, but the outbreak has put health authorities on high alert.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it was closely monitoring the situation of the US passengers on the ship, adding that the risk to the American public was extremely low at that time.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said a French citizen had been in contact with a person who fell ill but is not currently showing symptoms.
Argentina’s Health Ministry said it would conduct rodent capture and analysis in the southern city of Ushuaia, the cruise ship’s starting point.
The EU Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said the MV Hondius with about 150 people on board left for Spain late Wednesday and was expected to dock at the Spanish port of Tenerife in the Canary Islands on Sunday.
ECDC, which is part of the medical team on Hondius, said there was still no one on board showing any symptoms of hantavirus, adding that it was working with Spanish authorities to complete the debarkation protocol.
On arrival in Tenerife, if they are still healthy, all non-Spanish citizens will be repatriated, while the 14 Spanish passengers will be quarantined in a military hospital in Madrid.
There were four Australians on board, although their identities were not disclosed. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement that it was aware Australians were on the ship but was not aware of anyone affected by the reported hantavirus outbreak.
According to the testimony of a Spanish passenger, an Australian was among those who left the ship in Saint Helena and returned home on 21 April.
Three patients were evacuated from the ship on Wednesday. One of them was taken to a hospital in the Netherlands, while the other was transferred to Germany for medical care.
The plane carrying the third patient was set to land in the Netherlands early on Thursday after facing delays due to a problem with the patient’s life support system.
Reuters, AP
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