The luxury cruise ship M/V Hondius had been docked off the coast of Cape Verde for several days and was due to sail to the Canary Islands, but the island’s government opposed the plan, Reuters reports.
Meanwhile, South Africa confirmed that the infected were infected with a strain of the virus that can rarely spread from person to person. The Swiss government said a passenger infected with Hantavirus who was evacuated from the cruise ship to Switzerland is being treated in Zurich but is not a threat to the wider public.
Three passengers on the ship who had contracted Hantavirus have died, while a British citizen is being treated in South Africa. The Netherlands said it was preparing to evacuate three patients still on board. The World Health Organization has stressed that the risk to the public is low.
Most people get Hantavirus through contact with infected rodent droppings, and human-to-human transmission is very rare. However, in some previously identified outbreaks of the virus, in which the disease was caused by the Andes strain of the virus, infection from an infected person has also been observed. The specific strain was found in South America, including Argentina, from where the M/V Hondius also set sail in March.
Analyses show that the Andes strain of the virus caused the illness in the deceased passenger,
as well as in a Briton who is being treated in Johannesburg. A presentation by the South African National Center for Infectious Diseases indicated that this is the only strain of Hantavirus that is transmitted from person to person, but that this occurs very rarely and requires very close contact.
The South African Ministry of Health reported that contact tracing is underway, and 62 contacts have currently been found. These people will be monitored, but so far none of them have been found to have the virus.
The ship was scheduled to dock in Cape Verde, but the African country has not allowed passengers to disembark due to the virus outbreak. Spain’s Health Ministry said on the evening of the 5th of May that the WHO and the European Union had requested to take the M/V Hondius, and Spain had agreed, in accordance with international law and humanitarian principles. On the 6th of May, Spanish state broadcaster TVE, citing sources in the Health Ministry, reported that the ship would head to the port of Tenerife. However, the leader of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, opposed this and requested an emergency meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. The final decision rests with the central government.
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