Three people aboard a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean have died of suspected hantavirus infections, and at least three others are sick, the World Health Organization said, as the vessel remains anchored in Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, with passengers barred from disembarking there.
Who Gets Stuck Below Deck
The ship operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said the vessel is the m/v Hondius and that it is en route from Argentina to Cape Verde, an island nation off Africa’s west coast. Cape Verde’s health minister Maria da Luz Lima told Radio Cabo Verde that passengers will not be allowed to disembark in Praia. Local health authorities have visited the ship and assessed two symptomatic crew members requiring urgent medical care, Oceanwide Expeditions said.
The World Health Organization said that to date one case of hantavirus infection has been laboratory confirmed and there are five additional suspected cases. Of the six affected individuals, three have died and one is currently in intensive care in South Africa, the organization said on X. Oceanwide Expeditions said three passengers have died, with two of the deaths occurring on board the vessel and one after disembarkation. The company said one passenger is being treated in intensive care in Johannesburg and two individuals on board require urgent medical care. Reuters, citing a Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesperson, reported that two Dutch passengers died.
What the Authorities Are Managing
CNN reported that the three dead were cruise passengers and that the ship, called the MV Hondius, is currently anchored in Praia, the capital of Cape Verde. CNN said the first victim was a 70-year-old man who died on the ship and whose body was removed to Saint Helena, South Africa’s Department of Health said in a statement reported by the AP. CNN also reported that the man’s wife collapsed at an airport in South Africa while trying to fly home to the Netherlands, her home country, and died in hospital, according to the department. CNN said two of the deceased passengers were Dutch, according to a Dutch foreign ministry spokesperson, and that a British national who fell sick after the ship left Saint Helena is being treated in Johannesburg. CNN also reported that Dutch authorities have agreed to repatriate the symptomatic crew members, as well as the body of one deceased individual, to the Netherlands.
The WHO said it is facilitating coordination between member states and the ship’s operators for medical evacuation of two symptomatic passengers, as well as full public health risk assessment and support to the remaining passengers on board. The Dutch foreign ministry said it is working to explore the possibilities of medically evacuating a few individuals from the ship. Oceanwide Expeditions said it is currently focused on the health and safety of passengers and crew and will offer further information as it becomes available.
The Virus, the Route, the Risk
Hantavirus is a rodent-borne virus that can cause fatal respiratory illness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says humans most commonly become infected through contact with rodents like rats and mice, especially with their urine, droppings and saliva. CNN said one type of hantavirus, the Andes virus, is known to be able to transmit from person to person, though it is rare, and is primarily found in Chile and Argentina, where the ship originated. CNN also said the Ministry of Health of Tierra del Fuego province, where Ushuaia is located, said there has never been a reported case of hantavirus in the province, while the WHO said hantavirus is endemic in other parts of Argentina and Chile.
Oceanwide Expeditions said the cause of the infections is under investigation and that a strain of the hantavirus was identified in one passenger who was medically evacuated from the cruise ship, but that it has not been established whether hantavirus is linked to the three deaths connected to the voyage and that hantavirus has not been confirmed in the two symptomatic individuals currently on board. The ship remains anchored while health authorities, the WHO, and the operator coordinate around the outbreak, the evacuations, and the bodies already removed from the vessel.