Race to find port for hantavirus-stricken cruise ship

World Health Organization epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention chief Maria Van Kerkhove has said the species of hantavirus on board the ship has yet to be confirmed. Photo by Handout /World Health Organization/AFP

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Health authorities were racing to find a port for a cruise ship battling a suspected hantavirus outbreak Tuesday, as it remained off Cape Verde with passengers isolating after three people died.

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The MV Hondius will head to Spain’s Canary Islands, the World Health Organization said, though Spanish authorities said no decision would be made on which port would receive the ship until epidemiological data on board had been analyzed.

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The priority is to evacuate two crew members who require urgent care — potentially to the Netherlands — and “then the ship can move,” the WHO epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director Maria Van Kerkhove told reporters in Geneva.

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So far, two hantavirus cases have been confirmed and there have been five other suspected cases among the 147 people who were on the cruise from Ushuaia in Argentina to Cape Verde off west Africa, the WHO said.

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Three of those people had died, while one was critically ill and three others had reported mild symptoms, it said.

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Two of those who had died and one who was sickened had left the ship, with one woman flying to Johannesburg before dying on April 26, spurring a search for people she may have come in contact with on the flight.

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Passengers and crew have meanwhile been in isolation on the Hondius, operated by Dutch company Oceanwide Expeditions, after Cape Verde authorities barred the ship from docking.

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Human-to-human transmission?

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The WHO is working with Spanish authorities who “have said that they will welcome the ship to do… a full epidemiologic investigation,” Van Kerkhove said.

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They would also conduct a “full disinfection of the ship and of course, to assess the risk of the passengers that are actually on board,” she added.

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Spain’s health ministry said a decision on where to send the boat would be taken based “on the epidemiological data collected from the ship during its stopover in Cape Verde.”

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The United Nations’ health agency was scrambling for answers about how hantavirus had emerged on the Hondius, which set off from Ushuaia on April 1.

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Human hantavirus infection is a rare but potentially deadly disease that is primarily spread via infected rodents, the WHO said.

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However, human-to-human transmission has also been reported in previous outbreaks involving one specific species of hantavirus called Andes virus, which circulates in South America.

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Van Kerkove said the species of virus had yet to be confirmed.

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“The sequencing is currently underway by the South Africans, and we hope to have a result soon,” she said, adding though that “our working assumption is that it is the Andes virus.”

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Although investigation was required, she said: “We do believe that there may be some human-to-human transmission that is happening among the really close contacts.”