Three suspected hantavirus patients from cruise ship flown to the Netherlands
Three cruise ship passengers with suspected hantavirus infections were being flown to the Netherlands for medical care on Wednesday, as the World Health Organization said three people have died and eight cases have been recorded in the outbreak. About 150 passengers are isolating in their cabins aboard the Dutch ship MV Hondius, which is near the Cape Verde islands off West Africa and waiting to sail to Spain’s Canary Islands.
The vessel departed Argentina on April 1 for a weeks-long polar cruise. Hantavirus typically spreads when people inhale particles contaminated by rodent droppings. The WHO said samples from some patients, including those now evacuated, tested positive for the Andes strain, a variant found primarily in Argentina and Chile that can spread between people, although such transmission is rare and generally requires close contact.
Spain’s health ministry said a plane evacuating two of the patients from the ship would stop to refuel in the Canary Islands. Flight-tracking data showed a small aircraft circling near Gran Canaria before continuing on to the Netherlands. A Dutch hospital has confirmed it will take one of the people.
The ship received additional medical support after its doctor fell ill and was evacuated, Ann Lindstrand, a WHO representative in Cape Verde, said at a briefing Wednesday. “One medical doctor from WHO… will be taking care of patients if there will be more cases on board,” she said, adding the ship was expected to depart within hours.
The WHO’s top epidemic expert, Maria Van Kerkhove, said the public risk is low and emphasized that, while serious, the outbreak is not comparable to the scale of Covid-19. Access to clinical care is important for those infected, she noted, as some patients can develop severe acute respiratory distress requiring oxygen or mechanical ventilation.
The incubation period for hantavirus can range from one to six weeks, or longer, she said. Investigators in Argentina are examining how the outbreak began. Two Argentine officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the probe is ongoing, said the leading hypothesis is that a Dutch couple contracted the virus during a bird-watching outing at a landfill in Ushuaia before boarding.
Authorities had previously said Ushuaia and the surrounding province of Tierra del Fuego had never recorded a hantavirus case. Oceanwide Expeditions, which operates the cruise, said patients were being transported by specially equipped planes to “locations able to provide specialized care and appropriate medical screening.”