Three people have died and at least eight others tested positive for hantavirus after contracting the rare virus aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, prompting the World Health Organization to warn that more cases could emerge over the coming weeks.
The outbreak began when a Dutch passenger boarded the ship in Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1. He died aboard the vessel on April 11, and his body was removed in Saint Helena on April 24. His wife, who left the ship to accompany his body to South Africa, died there 15 days later on May 4 after also contracting the virus. A third passenger has also died, though details remain limited.
However, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in Geneva on Thursday that the outbreak would likely remain contained if public health measures are enforced. The organisation confirmed five cases and three suspected cases overall, with a fourth passenger testing positive at Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands just hours after Ghebreyesus spoke. People who contracted the virus are now being treated or isolating in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and South Africa.
The Andes virus strain detected aboard the Hondius is one of the rare hantavirus variants that can spread between humans, not just from infected rodents. Ghebreyesus noted that because the virus has an incubation period of up to six weeks, additional cases may still be reported in coming weeks. The ship's operator, Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions, said no symptomatic individuals currently remain aboard the vessel as it sails toward the Spanish island of Tenerife.
Hantavirus is a serious respiratory disease with no vaccine or cure. It causes respiratory and cardiac distress as well as haemorrhagic fevers, and treatment focuses only on relieving symptoms. The virus is usually spread from infected rodents, though this strain proved capable of human-to-human transmission aboard the crowded ship.
WHO emergency alert and response director Abdi Rahman Mahamud stressed that the outbreak would be limited if countries implement proper public health responses and show solidarity. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director, bluntly rejected comparisons to the Covid-19 pandemic. "This is not the start of an epidemic. This is not the start of a pandemic," she said. "This is not Covid."
Argentina's health officials said they plan to test rodents in Ushuaia, where the ship departed, to understand how the virus entered the vessel. WHO informed 12 countries whose nationals disembarked from the Hondius at Saint Helena, where 29 passengers left the ship. Oceanwide Expeditions is working to establish a complete list of all passengers and crew who boarded or disembarked across various stops since March 20. The UK Health Security Agency said two people who returned to Britain from the ship are asymptomatic and have been advised to self-isolate, adding that the risk to the British public remains very low.
