Three passengers have died, and three other people are being treated amid a “public health event” involving suspected hantavirus infections on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean, health officials said.
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Of the three people who died, hantavirus was confirmed in one case, a passenger from the U.K. who became ill while the cruise ship was traveling from St. Helena to Ascension Island, South African Health Ministry Spokesperson Foster Mohale said.
Hantavirus is suspected in the five other cases, the World Health Organization said in a statement Sunday.
The other two who died were identified as a married couple, a 70-year-old man declared dead on arrival in St. Helena, and a 69-year-old woman who collapsed at Johannesburg’s international airport while attempting to fly to the pair’s home country of the Netherlands and died at a health facility, the spokesperson said.
St. Helena is an island midway between South America and Africa.
Of the three others who were sickened, one is in intensive care in South Africa, the WHO said.
The WHO is helping the ship’s operators launch a medical evacuation of the two other symptomatic people, it said, though it was not immediately clear whether that had happened.
The cruise ship Hondius remains off Cape Verde, an African country in the Atlantic Ocean. Authorities there have visited the ship to assess the conditions of the symptomatic people but have not authorized them to disembark, its operator, Oceanwise Expeditions, said in a statement.
The two symptomatic people who remain on board are crew members, the Netherlands-based operator said.
“The priority of Oceanwide Expeditions is to ensure that the two symptomatic individuals on board receive adequate and expedited medical care,” the company said.
The World Health Organization said medical care was being provided to those on board who need it while multiple investigations have been launched and sequencing of the virus was underway.
The vessel had an estimated 150 passengers as it traveled from Ushuaia, Argentina, to the Canary Islands, with multiple stops including mainland Antarctica, the Falklands, South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan, St. Helena, Ascension, and Cape Verde, Mohale said. The ship left Ushuaia about three weeks ago.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hantavirus infections can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which affects the lungs and kills more than a third of its patients in the United States; and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, a group similar illnesses that affects the kidneys.
Hantaviruses are spread by contact with rodents or their urine, droppings, and saliva, the CDC said, and do not often spread via person-to-person contact. Symptoms include fever, breathing difficulty, fatigue, and nausea, the CDC said.
The World Heath Organization said, “While rare, hantavirus may spread between people, and can lead to severe respiratory illness and requires careful patient monitoring, support and response.”
