An outbreak of an unusual hantavirus infection on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean has killed three people, including an elderly couple, and sickened at least three others, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the South African Department of Health reported this Sunday.
The WHO said in a statement to that an investigation has already begun. The agency indicated that one of the patients is admitted to the intensive care ward at a South African hospital and added that it is working with authorities to evacuate two other passengers with symptoms from the ship.
Hantavirus, present worldwide, is transmitted through contact with the urine or feces of infected rodents, such as rats and mice. The virus made headlines last year after late actor Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, lost her life to a hantavirus infection in New Mexico.
Hackman died about a week later due to heart disease.
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Hantavirus can cause serious respiratory symptoms, the WHO said. The virus can cause a severe lung infectionand sometimes fatal, called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Although rare, hantavirus infections can be transmitted between people, according to the WHO.
“WHO is aware of and supporting a public health event involving a cruise ship sailing in the Atlantic Ocean,” the organization said. “Detailed investigations are being carried out, including further laboratory tests and epidemiological investigations. Medical care and support have been provided to passengers and crew. Virus sequencing is also carried out”.
South Africa’s Department of Health said the outbreak occurred on the MV Hondius cruise ship, which left Argentina about three weeks ago for a cruise that included visits to Antarctica, the Falkland Islands and other stops en route to Spain’s Canary Islands across the Atlantic.
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Global maritime tracking site MarineTraffic identified the vessel as a Dutch-flagged passenger cruise ship. He located the vessel docked on Sunday in Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, a country off West Africa.
The first victim was a 70-year-old man who died on the ship and whose body was removed from the vessel in the British territory of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, the South African Department of Health reported in a statement. The man’s wife collapsed at a South African airport while trying to take a flight to her home country, the Netherlands, the agency said. He died in a nearby hospital.
The department identified the patient in intensive care as a British citizen. He noted that person became ill near Ascension Island, another remote island in the Atlantic, after the ship left St. Helena.
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Around 150 tourists were on board the ship at the time of the outbreak, highlighted the South African health department. Several tour operators said the Hondius, which is described as a specialized polar cruise ship, usually has about 70 crew members.
The WHO stated that it is working with national authorities and ship operators to conduct a “full public health risk assessment” and provide support to those still on board the vessel.
South Africa’s National Institute of Communicable Diseases, for its part, is carrying out contact tracing in the Johannesburg region to identify whether other people were exposed to the infected passengers.
There is no specific treatment or cureto for hantavirus infections, but early medical care can increase the chance of survival.
