Deadly hantavirus outbreak on ship poses 'low' risk to wider public, WHO says

WHO chief provides timeline around cruise-ship hantavirus cases

The domain wellness organisation on th stressed that the risk to the general public is "low" even though the Andean ​strain of hantavirus — found in several people who were on board a stricken cruise ship — can in rare cases be transmitted among humans.

The WHO says it is working on step-by-step guidance for when the MV Hondius reaches Spain's Canary Islands on Saturday or Sunday and dozens of its remaining passengers disembark and travel home. None of those passengers, which include four Canadians, currently have any symptoms.

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

"This is not coronavirus, this is a ⁠very different virus," Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO ⁠director of epidemic and pandemic management, told a news conference. "This is not the same ‌situation we were in six years ago."

WHO officials stressed that this is a unique situation — the first known cluster of hantavirus found on a cruise ship — and that citizens of Tenerife in the Canary Islands should not be alarmed, given the protocols that will be followed for the disembarkment.

They also said the condition of a British patient hospitalized in South Africa has improved, and that a patient in hospital in the Netherlands is in stable condition.

In Ottawa, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said consular officials are en route to the Canary Islands and that "all public health protocols will be followed" in offering support. Canadian officials have been in email contact with the Canadians on board, she said, without elaborating.

Countries worldwide are expected to trace people who left the ‌ship before hantavirus was known to be on board.

The ship's operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said Thursday that 30 people disembarked the Hondius in St. Helena, a British territory where the ship ​made a stop on its way to Cape Verde on April 24, before the outbreak was reported.

Those 30 passengers included two Canadians and the body of a man who died on board on April 11, the company said.

Oceanwide had not previously acknowledged that anyone else got off the ship at St. Helena, and the whereabouts of those passengers is as yet unknown.

Among them was the wife of the Dutchman who had died on board. She fell sick herself and died before she could reach the Netherlands.

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The Dutch airline ⁠KLM said Wednesday 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 her 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 virus, 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.

Once the ship docks in the Canary Islands, it is expected that non-Spanish citizens will be repatriated to their countries, while 14 Spanish passengers will be quarantined in a military hospital in Madrid.

The travel itineraries of the four current Canadian passengers and the two known to have disembarked late last month in St. Helena 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 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. Without treatment, sufferers can experience acute respiratory issues and, in rare cases, a fatal lung disease connected to the virus.

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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