Spain agrees to “welcome” cruise ship with hantavirus as WHO traces dead contacts

Spain agreed to “accept” the cruise ship in the middle of a rare hantavirus outbreakas three people have now died after catching the disease on the ship, according to the World Health Organization.

The ship, with nearly 150 people on board, was waiting for help off the coast of Cape Verde in the Atlantic Ocean after the African island refused to dock at the airport due to public health concerns.

Apart from the three dead – two of them died on the boat and the third died shortly after disembarking – there are four others suspected of having the virus, one of whom is a British national who was taken off the boat and is now in intensive care in South Africa, according to the WHO.

The WHO says it suspects there was human transmission on the stricken ship, where passengers were told to stay in their cabins as much as possible. The search for the people who were traveling on the plane with the 69-year-old passenger has also begun.

A Dutch woman, whose husband died on a boat two weeks ago, got off the boat with “abdominal symptoms” on April 24 and died two days later, after her condition “worsened on the flight to Johannesburg,” the WHO said. “Communication tracing of passengers on the plane has been initiated,” it added.

On Tuesday, the director of epidemics and pandemic preparedness and prevention of the WHO, Maria Van Kerkhove, told reporters that the Spanish authorities “said that they will receive the ship to do a full investigation, a full investigation of the epidemic, the complete disinfection of the ship and …

The agency said on Tuesday that the current aim is to evacuate the two sick passengers to the Netherlands, and then the ship will continue to Spain’s Canary Islands.

The MV Hondius, a Dutch ship on a week-long voyage from Argentina to Antarctica and several remote islands in the South Atlantic, requested help from local health authorities after heading to Cape Verde, off the West African coast. But no one is allowed to disembark, said Netherlands-based operator Oceanwide Expeditions.

Cape Verde’s Ministry of Health said on Monday it would not allow the ship to dock at the airport due to public health concerns, adding that it would remain in open waters near the coast.

Hantavirus is a rodent-borne disease that is spread by contact with rodents or their urine, saliva or feces. The WHO says that although it is rare, hantavirus can spread between people, and when people do contract the virus, the death rate is as high as 50%.

It is not clear how the outbreak started, and the WHO said it was investigating while working to coordinate the evacuation of the two sick members. Another sick person – a British man who moved to South Africa on April 27 – tested positive for the virus, authorities said. He is in critical condition, health officials said.

The body of one of the dead passengers – a German national – remains on board, according to a statement from Oceanwide Expeditions. A 70-year-old Dutch man died on the ship on April 11, and his wife, 69, died later in South Africa after leaving the ship, officials said. His blood was later found to be infected, said South Africa’s health minister.

Of the remaining 87 passengers, 17 are American, 19 are from the UK and 13 are from Spain, according to Oceanwide Expeditions. Sixty-one crew members were also on board.

Cape Verde has sent a medical team of two doctors, a nurse and a laboratory technician to the ship for three trips, said Dr. Ann Lindstrand, WHO Cape Verde chief.

He told the Associated Press in an interview that they plan to evacuate for medical reasons, where passengers will be taken off the ship by ambulance and taken to the airport.

“It has been very difficult for the authorities in Cape Verde,” said Lindstrand. “What they have to deal with is a public health event. And of course, they’ve been thinking about the protection of the population here.”

The WHO said it was working with local authorities and Oceanwide on a “comprehensive assessment of the public health risk.”

“Detailed investigations are ongoing, including laboratory tests, and epidemiological investigations,” the WHO said. “Passengers and crew are being provided with medical assistance and support.”

Lindstrand told the AP that there may have been a new case on the ship, in a person showing mild flu-like symptoms, that health workers are still investigating.

The ship left Ushuaia in southern Argentina on April 1, according to Argentine provincial authorities. Health officials there confirmed that none of the passengers had symptoms of hantavirus when the Hondius departed.

But because symptoms can appear eight weeks after exposure, “passengers may have contracted the disease if they found it in the country or elsewhere in the world,” Juan Facundo Petrina, director of epidemiology in Tierra del Fuego state, told AP in an interview from Ushuaia.

He mentioned that the province had never seen hantavirus cases, but diseases have broken out in other provinces of Argentina, leading to the death of 28 people across the country last year, according to the Ministry of Health.

Oceanwide Expeditions is advertising a 33-night or 43-night “Atlantic Odyssey” cruise aboard the ship.

It has 80 cabins, holds 170 passengers, and usually carries a crew of about 70, including a doctor, the company said.