Hantavirus-hit cruise ship to sail to Spain; rare Andes strain confirmed

JOHANNESBURG – A luxury cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak and marooned off the coast of Cape Verde was set to leave for Spain on May 6 after three people, two of them seriously ill, were evacuated.

The MV Hondius, with nearly 150 people on board, is expected to dock in Spain’s Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, within three days, Spain’s health minister said, adding that those still on board were not presenting any symptoms of the disease.

Once in Tenerife, if they are still healthy, all non-Spanish citizens will be repatriated to their countries, Ms Monica Garcia told a press conference in Madrid.

The 14 Spanish passengers will be quarantined in a military hospital in Madrid, she said. The duration of the quarantine will depend on when they potentially had contact with the virus, she said, adding that it has a 45-day incubation period.

A total of eight people - including a Swiss citizen who has returned home and is being treated in Zurich - are suspected to have contracted the virus, with three of them confirmed by laboratory testing, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.

The Swiss government said a man who returned to Switzerland after being a passenger on the ship, the MV Hondius, was infected with the hantavirus and was being treated in Zurich. It said there was no danger to the broader population.

A Dutch couple and a German national who had been on the ship have died, while a British national is in intensive care in South Africa.

Two air ambulances sent to retrieve three others believed to be infected left Cape Verde’s airport on May 6, an AFP journalist witnessed.

The three were evacuated from the boat earlier, according to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who said they were being taken to the Netherlands.

The two airplanes left one after the other, the first and larger headed to the Netherlands, according to flight tracker Flightradar24. Landing is scheduled for around 7.30pm local time.

The WHO chief told AFP on May 6 he did not believe a deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship has similarities with the start of the Covid pandemic.

Human-to-human transmission is rare

Since the start of the outbreak, the WHO has stressed that the risk to the broader public is low.

People are usually infected with the hantavirus through contact with infected rodents or their urine, their droppings or their saliva.

Human-to-human transmission is rare. But a limited spread among close contacts has been observed in some previous outbreaks with the Andes strain, which has spread in South America, including Argentina, where the cruise trip started in March.

A presentation seen by Reuters said tests done by South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases revealed that the Andes strain was the cause of infection in the Dutch woman who died in Johannesburg, as well as in the British man who is still in hospital there.

“This is the only strain that is known to cause human-to-human transmission, but such transmission is very rare and, as said earlier, it only happens due to very close contact,” the presentation said.

Contact tracing under way

South Africa’s Health Ministry said that contact tracing was under way, with 62 contacts identified including flight crew and healthcare workers. These people will be monitored until an incubation period has passed, and none have been diagnosed with the hantavirus so far.

Cape Verde was meant to be the MV Hondius’ final destination, but the nation off West Africa has not allowed the vessel to put passengers ashore because of the outbreak.

Late on May 5, the Spanish Health Ministry said it had been asked by the World Health Organization and the European Union to take in the MV Hondius and had given its agreement “in accordance with international law and humanitarian principles”.

The ship will dock at the Canary island of Tenerife, Spanish state broadcaster TVE reported on May 6, citing sources from the country’s health ministry.

The Spanish archipelago’s leader Fernando Clavijo said he was opposed to the move and requested an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. The decision ultimately belongs to the central government, which supersedes regional authorities. REUTERS, AFP