US passengers from the Dutch flagged hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius being transferred by boat to Tenerife. Photo / Jorge Guerrero, AFP
US passengers from the Dutch flagged hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius being transferred by boat to Tenerife. Photo / Jorge Guerrero, AFP
The World Health Organisation has detailed which countries have confirmed or probable cases of nationals infected by hantavirus after the outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius.
Among living patients, seven cases have been confirmed and an eighth is listed as “probable”, according to the WHO and certain national healthauthorities.
In addition, three people have died, with two of those confirmed as having hantavirus and one probable case.
Other suspected cases and potential close contacts of infected people are being investigated, according to health authorities.
Two Dutch people from the ship died from the virus and a third has been confirmed to have contracted it.
A Dutch couple who had travelled around South America before boarding the ship in Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 were the first fatalities.
Leo Schilperoord, 70, showed symptoms on April 6 and died on April 11. His body was taken off the ship during its April 22-24 call at Saint Helena, an island in the south Atlantic.
No hantavirus test was carried out and he is considered a “probable case”, according to the WHO.
His 69-year-old wife Miriam also left the ship at Saint Helena, feeling unwell. Her health deteriorated during an April 25 flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, and she died in hospital a day later, with hantavirus confirmed on May 4.
The third Dutch case was the ship’s doctor, who reported symptoms on April 30. A test showed him positive for the Andes strain of the virus on May 6.
He was evacuated to the Netherlands when the ship stopped off Cape Verde and was stable while being treated in isolation.
United Kingdom
Two British nationals have been confirmed as infected and one is classed as a “probable” case.
One British man became ill on April 24 and was evacuated three days later from the Atlantic island of Ascension to South Africa, where he was placed in intensive care. Hantavirus was confirmed on May 2 and the Andes strain was confirmed through sequencing.
A second British man working as a guide on the ship reported symptoms on April 27 and tested positive on May 6. He was evacuated to the Netherlands on May 7 from Cape Verde and was stable while being treated in isolation.
A third British man left the Hondius on April 14 on the South Atlantic archipelago of Tristan da Cunha and was treated in isolation there. He reported symptoms on April 28. The WHO listed him as a “probable case” pending laboratory results.
British troops and medics were parachuted onto the island to deliver urgent medical supplies for him.
Health experts point to May 19 as the date when the wider spread of a recent outbreak of hantavirus may be revealed. Photo / Joel Saget, AFP
Germany
A German woman who had a fever on April 28, and later developed pneumonia, died on May 2 on board the ship.
A post-mortem sample was sent to the Netherlands with the evacuated patients, where tests confirmed infection by the Andes virus.
Her body remained on board the Hondius, which left for the Netherlands from the Spanish island of Tenerife on Monday.
Switzerland
A Swiss man disembarked from the Hondius in Saint Helena on April 22 and flew to Switzerland on April 27 via South Africa and Qatar.
He started suffering symptoms on May 1 after arrival in Switzerland. He was treated in isolation and tested positive for the Andes virus on May 5.
France
A French woman repatriated from the Hondius felt unwell late on May 10 and tested positive for hantavirus, France’s Health Minister Stephanie Rist said. She added that the woman’s condition worsened during the night.
United States
One of 17 American citizens repatriated from the ship tested “mildly PCR positive” for the virus while another had “mild symptoms”, the US Department of Health and Human Services said on May 10.
The passengers are being taken to a specialised centre in Nebraska, while the person with mild symptoms will be taken to a second centre, the health department said.
Spain
A Spanish passenger evacuated from the Hondius tested positive for but was not suffering symptoms, Madrid’s Health Ministry said.
The passenger “received a positive result from a PCR test done on his arrival” at the Gomez Ulla military hospital in Madrid, where he was being kept in isolation, the ministry said.
It added that the “final results will be known in the coming hours” and the other 13 Spanish evacuees had tested negative for the time being.
