Cruise ship outbreak latest: WHO says suspected hantavirus spreading on vessel as evacuations orderednewsline24

Medics will be allowed to board the MV Hondius and evacuate two infected passengers, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

In an update on Tuesday, the agency said there ⁠may be some human-to-human transmission happening between close contacts ⁠on board ​the cruise ⁠ship.

It added the risk to the wider public remains low.

WHO said the ship will then continue to the Canary Islands.

The family of a Dutch couple, both 69 years old, who were on the cruise ship MV Hondius and died last month have paid tribute to them.

The husband and wife, who have not been named, died on 11 and 26 April respectively. It is understood the husband became ill first and died on board, while his wife disembarked but later became unwell on her return journey and died. Tests confirmed she had contracted hantavirus.

In a statement obtained by Sky News, the couple’s family said they were from the village of Haulerwijk in the north of the Netherlands.

“The beautiful journey they experienced together was abruptly and permanently cut short,” they said.

“We are still unable to comprehend that we have lost them. We wish to bring them home and commemorate them in peace and privacy.”

Hantavirus are a family of viruses which can cause serious illnesses and death.

Mainly spread by rodents, the viruses can cause diseases like hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS).

The main symptoms in early stages of HPS infection are:

Four to 10 days later, late symptoms appear. These include coughing and shortness of breath.

The main symptoms in early stages of HFRS infection are:

• back and abdominal pain

Later symptoms can also include:

• acute kidney failure, which can cause severe fluid overload

Three passengers are dead and an investigation is underway after a suspected outbreak of hantavirus ripped through an Atlantic Ocean cruise ship.

While only one hantavirus infection has been confirmed through testing, five others have also fallen ill on the MV Hondius, which was traveling from Argentina to Cape Verde.

The deceased passengers include a senior Dutch couple and a German national, according to Dutch shipowner Oceanwide Expeditions.

Scientists do not yet know how the cruise ship passengers became infected with Hantavirus, but said outbreaks on cruise ships are not uncommon.

Experts have also reassured it is unlikely to spread to the UK.

Dr Benjamin Brennan at the University of Glasgow said: “Infectious disease outbreaks on cruise liners are not uncommon (e.g. norovirus). We don’t yet know whether it’s relevant that this current situation has happened on a cruise ship.”

Prof Jon Cohen, Emeritus Professor of Infectious Diseases, Brighton and Sussex Medical School said there is “not a particular reason for these infections to occur on cruise ships,” and added that the source of the infection is still unknown.

“It is too early to speculate on how the affected people became infected.But it is very unlikely that this outbreak would lead to an increased risk in the UK or elsewhere in Europe,” Prof Paul Hunter, Professor in Medicine, UEA, added.

Simon Calder the Independent’s Travel Correspondent reports:

Passengers will not be allowed off the MV Hondius, location for an outbreak of hantavirus, until she reaches the Canary Islands – 900 miles northeast of her present location, Cape Verde.

The voyage is expected to take three days.Three people who were on the voyage from Argentina to Cape Verde have died and a British man is in hospital in South Africa.

The health authorities in Cape Verde have refused to allow the non-symptomatic passengers and crew to disembark.

Dr Maria van Kerkhove, director for Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention at the World Health Organisation (WHO), has been explaining the latest thinking on BBC Breakfast about the outbreak of hantavirus aboard the MV Hondius.

“Our working hypothesis is that there’s probably a couple of different types of transmission that might be happening: maybe some infection – exposure to rodents or their faeces or their saliva before passengers embarked – and potentially some limited human to human transmission among the contacts.

“We’re working with the ship’s operators, we’re working with the nations from where they are from, to make sure that we have a plan for where the boat goes next, which will be the Canary Islands, and to make sure that there’s a proper assessment that is done, that information is shared with them, that they receive food, they receive water, and of course that they’re medically evaluated over the course of several weeks.

“We want to ensure that they are safe, we want to ensure that even if they are infected – and like we said, we have no other symptomatic people on board – to make sure that they will receive medical care.

“We do know that one of the viruses can transmit between people, but in previous outbreaks it’s been quite limited – and when I say limited, I mean among close contacts or with prolonged contact.

“We have a working hypothesis that there’s probably a mixture of different types of transmission.

“This is also a boat that went to many different islands. They were looking at wildlife, they were looking at birds, and on some of these islands there’s rodents as well.

“So there could be a mixture of exposure to rodents in different places, but because some of the cases are close contacts, sharing cabins together, our assumption is that there’s a bit of a mix.”

Hantavirus has an incubation period of up to eight weeks. Dr van Kerkhove said: “We’re working with Spanish officials to actually develop that plan to make sure that there is a plan in place for an assessment on board once the ship docks in the Canary Islands to do a proper risk assessment.”

“It’s not about docking and letting everybody go without any follow-up or any support.”

American travel blogger Jake Rosmarin, who has over 44,000 followers on Instagram, was aboard the ship when the suspected outbreak.

While onboard the ship, along with 149 passengers including 17 Americans, he shared a teary social media update.

“I am currently on board the MV Hondius, and what’s happening right now is very real for all of us here,” Rosmarin said in a video shared Monday on Instagram.

“We’re not just a story, we’re not just headlines. We’re people. People with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home.”

“There’s a lot of uncertainty, and that’s the hardest part,” Rosmarin added.

“All we want right now is to feel safe. To have clarity, and to get home,” the blogger continued.

“If you’re seeing coverage of this, just remember that there are real people behind it and that this isn’t something happening somewhere far away…It’s happening to us right now,” he concluded the video.

South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases was conducting contact tracing to identify whether people were exposed to infected cruise ship passengers.

The 69-year-old Dutch woman who died was trying to catch a flight home to the Netherlands at Johannesburg’s main international airport, one of Africa’s busiest, when she collapsed.

Her blood later tested positive for the virus, making two confirmed cases, South Africa’s health minister said.

But the health department urged people not to panic, saying WHO was “coordinating a multi-country response with all affected islands and countries to contain further spread of the disease”.

There was no information yet from authorities on a possible source of the suspected outbreak.