Canadian cruise passenger isolating on Vancouver Island tests positive for Hantavirus

A passenger of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius is pictured while leaving by military bus after disembarking in the port of Granadilla de Abona on the island of Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands on May 11. Photo by JORGE GUERRERO/AFP via Getty Images /PNG

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The four returned to Canada from the ship, which was hit by an outbreak of the respiratory virus after leaving Ushuaia, Argentina, late last month, and put into quarantine upon arrival home in Victoria.

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“Clearly, this is not what we hoped for, but it is what we planned for,” said Henry.

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None had symptoms when they returned to Canada as they began a quarantine for a minimum of 21 days, with the incubation period of hantavirus lasting around 42 days. One member of a couple from the Yukon, in their 70s, began to develop mild symptoms, including a fever and a headache two days ago.

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They were both taken to hospital and tested, with one individual who was experiencing symptoms testing positive for hantavirus by the B.C. CDC public health lab. Samples were sent to the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg for confirmation, with the results expected later Saturday.

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The other member of the isolating couple  had minor symptoms, but testing was negative, said Henry.

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A third person in the same lodgings was transferred to the Royal Jubilee and Victoria General hospitals for testing and monitoring, while the fourth — who had been isolating at home — remains and is monitored daily.

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“I want to talk for just a minute about quarantine and isolation. I know these are words that we have heard maybe far too often over the last number of years during the COVID pandemic, and I know they can be very worrying for people to hear,” said Henry. “Quarantine is a tool. … We safely put people in a place where they can be away from others, so that if they develop symptoms, there’s nobody else that they will pass it on to during that very long incubation period.

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“All of these people were exposed on board the cruise ship, and they had been on board that ship for over a month. I think that’s important to know. And it was second of May that the Andes virus outbreak was identified, so they are now in that key risk period … the period of highest risk, where we know that people are developing symptoms around the 18-day mark.

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Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry: ‘We safely put people in a place where they can be away from others, so that if they develop symptoms, there’s nobody else that they will pass it on to during that very long incubation period.’ Photo by PNG Archive

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“I want to reassure everybody in B.C. that for most of us the situation has not changed. We’ve had infection control precautions in place from the moment these people arrived in British Columbia, and I’m confident there’s no additional risk that to anybody else outside of the people who’ve been caring for these individuals.”

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A dozen cases have been linked to the cruise ship outbreak, which has resulted in three fatalities, includuing a 70-year-old Dutch man, his 69-year-old Dutch spouse, and a German passenger. A 69-year-old British man was evacuated from the ship to intensive care in South Africa, while a female French passenger is critically ill in a hospital in France and is being treated with an artificial lung.