Several US residents under observation after deadly hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship

For the last few weeks, a crisis has been unfolding on a luxury cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean, the MV Hondius. The Hondius’s passengers had been touring and exploring isolated islands in the southern Atlantic. Either somewhere along their journey or before they left port, someone on board was exposed to Andean hantavirus. Hantaviruses are most commonly transmitted by contact with rat feces. The Andean variant is the only hantavirus confirmed to be spreadable by human-to-human contact. In the environment of a cruise ship, such an infection can put everyone aboard at risk.

Three people have died so far, including a Dutch man, 70, who died on April 11; his wife, 69, who died in a South African hospital on April 26; and a German woman who died on the ship on May 2. For the last several days, the ship has been anchored off Cabo Verde, an island nation off the coast of West Africa. After three infected people were medically evacuated from the ship on Wednesday, the ship is now on its way to Spain’s Canary Islands. There, the 146 passengers and crew will be screened, quarantined and treated if necessary and then repatriated to their home countries. Cabo Verde reportedly denied the Hondius permission to dock because they did not have the resources to undertake those measures.

So far, eight infections have been confirmed with hospitalizations in the Netherlands, Switzerland and South Africa so far. According to passengers still on the ship, 23 people disembarked from the ship on the island of St. Helena on April 21 (10 days after the first victim died) and were only contacted within the last 3 days.

Several of the passengers who have returned home are US residents and they are being monitored in at least three states, Georgia, California and Arizona.

What are the risks?

Hantavirus is extremely deadly with a death rate of around 40%, according to health authorities. Symptoms include fever and cardio pulmonary distress. The virus also has an unusually long incubation period before a patient shows symptoms, which can be up to 8 weeks after exposure.

There is no known antiviral treatment for hantavirus. The disease is usually treated with breathing support in severe cases.

However, health authorities maintain that the risk to the general public is long. These hantaviruses are most readily spread by close contact with an infected individual, especially if there is an exchange of bodily fluids.