Hantavirus strain capable of human transmission found in cruise ship passengers
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak and which is stuck of the coast of Cape Verde with nearly 150 people on board was waiting Wednesday to head to Spain’s Canary Islands. Meanwhile, health authorities in South Africa and Switzerland identified a strain of the virus that can be transmitted between humans in rare cases in three cases.
Authorities in Switzerland announced Wednesday that a man who returned from South America and traveled on the cruise ship has tested positive for the virus and is receiving treatment.
Three passengers have died and at least five people have been sickened by hantavirus on board the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius cruise ship. Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings. There have been three laboratory-confirmed cases.
The ship left Argentina on April 1 on an Atlantic cruise and was scheduled to include stops in Antarctica, the Falkland Islands and other locations. However, the itinerary may have changed because of the situation on board.
Spain’s Health Ministry said in a statement late Tuesday that it would receive the MV Hondius vessel in the Canary Islands after a request from the World Health Organization and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
But for now it remains marooned off the coast of Cape Verde, an island nation off West Africa in the Atlantic. The World Health Organization said passengers are isolating in their cabins.
South African health authorities said they identified the Andes strain of hantavirus in two passengers who were on the ship.
The World Health Organization says the Andes virus, a specific species of hantavirus, is found in South America, primarily in Argentina and Chile.
The Andes virus can be spread between people, though this is rare and the spread of the disease is typically contained because it would spread only through close contact, such as by sharing a bed or sharing food, experts say.
The South African Department of Health said in a report that the information came from tests performed on the passengers after they were removed from the ship and flown to South Africa.
One of the passengers, a British man, is in intensive care in a South African hospital. Tests were performed on the other passenger posthumously after she died in South Africa.
A statement from the Federal Office of Public Health said that the man “returned to Switzerland after traveling on the cruise ship on which there were a number of hantavirus cases.” It said his case also involved the Andes virus.
It said he had returned from a trip to South America with his wife at the end of April. After noticing symptoms, he went to the University Hospital Zurich after consulting with his doctor and was immediately placed in isolation.
The patient’s wife hasn’t shown any symptoms but is self-isolating as a precaution, the statement said.
The public health office said that “there is currently no risk to the Swiss public.”
The WHO said in a social media post that the man responded to “an email from the ship’s operator informing the passengers of the health event” and went to the hospital.
The cruise ship will be welcomed to Spain’s Canary Islands, according to Spanish authorities, as the vessel waited off the coast of West Africa for a third day Wednesday for sick passengers to be evacuated.
However, the regional president of Spain’s Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, said Wednesday that he was worried the arrival of the ship could put the local population at risk and demanded an urgent meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
“Neither the populace nor the government of the Canary Islands can rest assured because it is clear that the danger to the population is real,” Clavijo told Onda Cero radio.
Medical evacuation teams were on standby Wednesday morning in the port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde.
Associated Press journalists nearby saw a boat approach the ship on Tuesday night before turning back soon after. It was not clear what happened, or whether that was the evacuation team.
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