Global health authorities and airlines are scrambling to contain a deadly outbreak of hantavirus linked to the polar expedition ship Hondius, tracing some 30 passengers from at least a dozen countries who disembarked before the virus was identified. Passengers on two flights who may have come in contact with someone who died from the virus are also being traced.
The Dutch Health Ministry said Thursday in an emailed statement that a flight attendant is in a hospital and being tested for the virus, declining to elaborate further. Dutch news outlet RTL cited the ministry as saying she had come into contact in Johannesburg with a cruise ship passenger who died from the virus a day later.
A passenger who left the cruise in St. Helena was one of 82 people who boarded an Airlink flight to Johannesburg on April 25. The same day, she tried to board a KLM aircraft to Amsterdam, but the crew decided not to allow her to travel because of her medical condition at the time, the Dutch airline said in a statement. Both airlines are working with health authorities and tracing passengers.
Oceanwide Expeditions said Thursday that it has contacted all 29 guests who disembarked the ship at St. Helena on April 24, before the first case of hantavirus was confirmed, including six Americans.
The Trump administration is “closely monitoring the situation,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said in a statement, with the State Department leading a coordinated response that includes direct contact with the passengers. “At this time, the risk to the American public is extremely low,” the CDC said. “We urge all Americans aboard the ship to follow the guidance of health officials as we work to bring you home safely.”
The second of two medical flights has arrived in the Netherlands, with three individuals — two with symptoms and one asymptomatic — under medical care, the company said. There are no passengers with symptoms on board, it added, with the ship sailing for Tenerife and expected to arrive in three or four days.
Three people have died since the outbreak began, including two Dutch nationals and a German. A British man is in intensive care in South Africa, and a Swiss man was also confirmed to have the virus, having departed the ship in late April.
Three of the suspected eight cases have been confirmed to be the Andean hantavirus by health authorities in South Africa and Switzerland, while testing is taking place in other suspected cases in Germany and the Netherlands.
Health authorities have emphasized that the risk to the public from the virus remains low. Hantavirus is normally linked to exposure to the urine or feces of infected rodents, but the Andes virus has been known to spread between people, World Health Organization officials have said. The WHO has said it is working on the assumption the initial patients were infected off the ship, either before they boarded in Argentina or on an excursion.
The cruise had carried 149 people of 23 nationalities, according to Oceanwide Expeditions, coming from places such as Spain, France, the U.S., Belgium, New Zealand, Turkey and Argentina. It also had an international crew, with members from the Philippines, Russia, India and Montenegro.
The ship is en route to the Canary Islands, where the company remains in discussion with authorities over exact arrival times and screening procedures, it said.
The post Authorities scramble to limit hantavirus outbreak, trace contacts around globe appeared first on Washington Post.
