A rare strain of hantavirus that has a 40% mortality rate and spreads through human-to-human contact could be responsible for three deaths on board a luxury cruise ship, health officials believe.
The outbreak on the MV Hondius, which was sailing from Argentina to Cape Verde, has resulted in at least seven other infections and has trapped other passengers on the ship as government and health officials try to figure out how to get sick passengers off the cruise ship. Most hantavirus strains only spread to humans from rodent droppings, urine, or saliva, but one rare and extremely dangerous strain can spread from human-to-human and “can’t be ruled out,” the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.
“We do believe that there may be some human-to-human transmission that is happening among the really close contacts,” World Health Organization official Maria Van Kerkhove said.
“We do know that some of the cases had very close contact with each other and certainly human-to-human transmission can’t be ruled out,” Van Kerkhove added.
The deadly strain suspected of spreading on the cruise ship is known as the “Andes virus” and is most commonly found in the Andes Mountains of Argentina and Chile. Van Kerkhove assured the media that the risk posed to the public from the hantavirus outbreak on the ship “is low.”
The cruise ship, along with its nearly 150 passengers and crew members, is being held off Cape Verde, an archipelago off the coast of West Africa. Van Kerkhove said on Tuesday that the ship would soon move around 1,000 miles northeast to the Canary Islands, a Spanish territory. The Spanish government said it was still trying to figure out “which port of call is most appropriate” for the ship to dock.
Health officials in hazmat suits checked out the cruise ship on Monday, and the World Health Organization said that no rodents were found on board, giving more credence to the human-to-human transmission theory. Medical teams also went aboard the ship to look into suspected infections of two crew members, The New York Post reported.
Jake Rosmarin, an American travel blogger who’s stuck on the ship, said in a video recording on Tuesday that all the healthy passengers “are doing well” and are in “good spirits.” He said that healthy passengers “have the option to have meals delivered directly to their cabins,” but “gathering in indoor common areas such as the lounge is currently restricted.”
Two of the people who died after contracting hantavirus were a Dutch couple who had been traveling in South America before boarding the MV Hondius, which left from Argentina on March 20 for a weeks-long voyage. The World Health Organization believes the couple contracted the disease before boarding the ship.
The first person, a 70-year-old Dutch man, died on board the ship on April 11. His wife, a 69-year-old woman, died 15 days later in South Africa while she was attempting to fly home to the Netherlands, The New York Times reported. A German national died on the ship on Saturday.
Hantavirus typically begins with flu-like symptoms such as fever, chills, and body aches, before potentially progressing to breathing problems and possible lung or heart failure.
