U.S. monitoring hantavirus cruise passengers; dozens left ship after 1st death
The United States was among countries Thursday urgently monitoring dozens of passengers traveling on the cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak.
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The luxury cruise has fueled a growing international response to infectious diseases, following the deaths of three people and suspected infections of at least five others. A new possible case also emerged Thursday, apparently involving a woman who was not a passenger on the ship.
Weeks after the first death on board, 30 passengers left the ship without contact tracing on St. Helena, a small, isolated island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said in a statement Thursday.
The company said it was “working to establish” the fate of all those who landed on April 24 and had contacted each of them. He said that number included six Americans.
One person who was aboard the Hondius is home in Arizona, two are in Georgia and an unknown number are back in California, according to authorities in those states – none are believed to be showing symptoms of the rare virus.
The 30 include 11 other nationalities but the country of origin of two people is unknown.
It also emerged on Thursday that a flight attendant was being tested for hantavirus at a hospital in the Netherlands.
“I can confirm that a flight attendant is currently in hospital and is being tested for the virus,” a spokesperson for the Dutch Ministry of Health told NBC News. The department did not say whether she was sick or showing symptoms of the virus, which is rare but potentially deadly.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines said Wednesday that a Dutch woman who died after contracting the hantavirus was “briefly” on board a Johannesburg-Amsterdam flight and was removed from the plane before takeoff.
It is unclear whether the flight attendant was on that same flight. KLM said in a statement that it would not comment on individual cases “for confidentiality reasons.”
The World Health Organization and national health officials have repeatedly emphasized that the risk to the public is low and that person-to-person transmission is only possible through close personal contact, such as within a couple.
Hantavirus is usually contracted through contact with rodents. The WHO, however, confirmed this week that the outbreak was the Andean strain of the virus which, unlike other strains, is known to be transmissible between people.
Health experts have said that even this strain does not transmit as easily as airborne illnesses such as the flu or Covid-19.
A travel vlogger aboard the Hondius told NBC News that passengers were “not well informed” about the situation on board. He recorded a video of the captain telling passengers the ship was “not contagious” after announcing the first death.
Nearly 150 people remain on board the Hondius under isolation protocol as the ship heads north from Cape Verde in West Africa to the Spanish-controlled Canary Islands. The journey is expected to take three to four days, although the head of the islands’ regional government is reluctant to accept the ship.
Spain’s Interior Ministry said the ship was expected to arrive on Sunday and evacuations would begin on Monday, “if all goes well.”
On Monday, Oceanwide said there were 17 Americans on board. The CDC said in a statement Wednesday evening that it and the State Department were closely monitoring the status of the Americans who were on the ship.
“The Department of State is leading a coordinated, government-wide response, including direct contact with passengers, diplomatic coordination, and engagement with domestic and international health authorities,” the statement said.
The CDC added that “the risk to the American public is extremely low.”
The three people who have died so far are a Dutch couple and a German national, while a Briton is in hospital in South Africa. It emerged on Wednesday that a man who left the ship was being treated in Zurich with suspected hantavirus.
Three patients were transported from the Hondius on Wednesday for medical treatment in the Netherlands and Germany, as health officials focus on tracing and monitoring dozens of people who left the ship during its voyage.
Hantavirus infection in humans is extremely rare and has never been previously recorded on a cruise ship. The CDC monitors the disease and its data shows there have been 890 confirmed cases between 1993 and 2023.
Argentine authorities announced that a rodent trapping program would take place in the city of Ushuaia, where the Hondius began its journey, and that it would carry out 2,500 diagnostic tests to try to find the origin of the outbreak.
