Contract tracing underway for dozens who got off cruise ship amid hantavirus outbreak

How hantavirus locked land this sail ship — indefinitely | well-nigh That

Countries world-wide scrambled on Thursday to trace people who had left the ‌cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak before it was anchored off the coast of Cape Verde to prevent further spread of the disease, which has so far killed three people.

The Dutch government said Thursday around 40 passengers had disembarked the MV Hondius in St. Helena, a British territory where the ship ​made a stop on its way to Cape Verde, before the outbreak was reported.

One of them was the wife of a Dutch citizen who had died ​aboard the ship on April 11. She fell sick herself and died before she could reach the Netherlands.

The ship's operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, had not acknowledged that anyone else got off the ship at St. Helena, and the whereabouts of the passengers who disembarked there is as yet unknown.

Dutch airline ⁠KLM on Wednesday said it ⁠had taken the woman off a plane in Johannesburg on April 25 due ‌to her deteriorating medical condition. According to Dutch broadcaster RTL, a stewardess for KLM who had been in contact with the woman has now been admitted to a hospital in Amsterdam after showing possible symptoms of hantavirus infection.

The Dutch Health Ministry confirmed a woman has been admitted to ⁠hospital and will be tested to determine whether she is infected with the hantavirus, though it did not mention her job or who she may have been in contact with.

A spokesperson for KLM said the company could not "discuss individual cases" due to privacy concerns.

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The Hondius, with nearly 150 people on ⁠board, headed for Spain late on Wednesday and is expected to dock in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, on Sunday, the EU's ⁠Centre ⁠for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said.

Once there, if they are still healthy, all non-Spanish citizens will be repatriated to their countries, while 14 Spanish passengers will be quarantined in a military hospital in Madrid.

There are four Canadian citizens on the ship, but their travel itinerary amid the outbreak, or after docking in Tenerife, is not known.

"As a result no specific measures under the Quarantine Act are currently required for these travellers upon arrival in Canada," the spokesperson said in an email.

Canada Border Services Agency officers screen all travellers arriving in the country, the agency said, and travellers displaying symptoms are referred to a PHAC officer for a further health assessment.

The United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it was closely monitoring the situation with U.S. Travellers on board the ship, adding that the risk to the American public was extremely low at the time.

Three people — a Dutch couple and a German national — have died in the outbreak on the Hondius. Eight people are suspected to have contracted the virus, according to the World Health Organization.

Oceanwide Expeditions said Thursday that three patients who were transferred from the ship the previous day for medical reasons, are now in the care of medical professionals in Europe. They were admitted to hospitals in the Netherlands and Gerrmany.

Both Oceanwide and the ECDC, which is part of the medical team onboard the Hondius, say those who remain on the ship are currently all asymptomatic. ECDC said it was working ​with Spanish authorities to finalize a protocol ⁠for when passengers disembark in Tenerife.

The virus found in the victims has been confirmed as the Andean strain, which can spread among humans through ‌very close contact.

Experts have stressed that contagion is very rare and requires very close contact, but the outbreak has put health authorities on high alert.

Argentina's Health Ministry has said it will carry out rodent trapping and analysis ⁠in the southern city of Ushuaia, the origin point of the cruise ship.

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