Elton Monteiro / LUSA
Hondius cruise ship
There are almost 150 people on board and the situation, although controlled, is very difficult for those on the boat.
O hantavirus appeared on the ship Hondius cruise. Three people diedand at least one registered positive for hantavirus. There are 147 people of 23 nationalities on the vessel in Cape Verde.
The first fatal victims were a couple, a 70-year-old Dutch man, whose body was removed from the ship on the island of Saint Helena, and his 69-year-old wife, transported to South Africa, where she died due to complications before being able to return home.
On Ascension Island, a British man was removed from the boat and transported to intensive care, where he remains, in South Africa – this being the positive case of hantavirus.
In an interview with the Associated Press (AP), Oceanwide Expeditions, the company responsible for the cruise, reported that the body of a third victim was still on board the ship in Cape Verde and that its priority was to ensure that two crew members who are ill received medical attention.
Others three people presented symptoms of hantavirus, but are stable.
What is hantavirus
It is a virus that rarely appears in humans, but this time it appeared.
Pulmonologist Filipe Froes explains that hantavirus is part of a family that has several species, whose natural reservoirs are rats and, in some cases, the bats.
When it appears in humans, there are two types: “The most common is a condition called hemorrhagic fever with renal syndromewhich is often a difficult case to diagnose, because there are non-specific complaints of fever, malaise, some fatigue, abdominal pain and kidney changes which, in the meantime, resolve spontaneously and the person does not notice; and then there is a more serious condition that people often call hantavirus pneumonia, which is a case associated with rapid progression to pneumonia and may have a higher mortality rate”, he describes in .
Contagion usually occurs through direct contact with urine e feces of rats; It can also happen through direct contact or rat bites.
“There are some described cases of transmission between humans, but they are very rare and require a specific species of hantavirus and close contact”, he reinforces.
Under control
The representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Cape Verde, Ann Lindstrand, told Lusa today that the situation on the cruise ship Hondius is “under control”, after three deaths associated with an acute respiratory syndrome.
“The situation is under control and medical teams are now on the boat” evaluating two crew members, with symptoms, that an ambulance plane can help from Praia to the Netherlands, the boat’s origin.
A third person, who shared a cabin with one of the dead, may also be transported, but the entire scenario is being evaluated by specialized medical teams, he said.
“I want to congratulate the Cape Verde authorities for their quick and professional response, right from the start,” said Ann Lindstrand.
Medical teams They have already been to the boat several times, which stopped at the entrance to the port of the city of Praia, not Sunday, no landings permitted, to protect public health and following international standards, indicated the Cape Verdean authorities.
Medical teams have come on board in full protective suits and “are ready to transfer from the boat to the ambulance and to the airport”.
“The Cape Verdean authorities have experience in medical transfers and I am confident that this will be quick and professional, so that we have the air ambulance schedule”, explained the WHO representative to Lusa.
Blood and urine samples from the two symptomatic cases on the boat are on their way from Praia to the Pasteur Institute, in Dakar, Senegal, about 600 kilometers away, “to be analyzed with the help of WHO”, expecting results by Tuesday.
“Very difficult”
For those on the boat, “it is a very difficult, this wait, from a mental health point of view, knowing what happened with the serious cases. But the captain and health authorities are continually informing passengers,” he described.
After the possible medical transfer of symptomatic cases, the boat must continue its journey to the Canaries, as initially planned on the cruise that started from Argentina, for weeks of nature observation in Antarctica and islands in the south Atlantic.
“We are planning, with the Spanish authorities, a deeper investigation, because the role of the WHO, at this moment, is to assess the public health risk. We are carrying out a screening to investigate where the virus comes from”, already confirmed in one of the serious cases, a British man in intensive care in South Africa.
Genomic analyzes are still being carried out on this confirmed case “to find out if it is the type of hantavirus (type from the Andes) that can be transmitted between people”, a “very rare” situation, he said.
According to Ann Lindstrand, “the national risk in Cape Verde is very low, the regional risk is low and, on a global level, we are still seeing it, because the boat landed on different islands.”
In any case, “the risk of transmission [de hantavírus] between people is very low”, he reiterated – however, in cases where it evolves, “the disease is serious and the mortality rate is 35%, so we have to do everything to protect the population”, he added.
The Hondius cruise remains stopped at the entrance to the port of Praia, without authorization for disembarkation.
There is a person Portuguese on board. According to the office of the Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities, he is one of the crew and will be fine.
