Elton Monteiro / EPA
Hondius cruise ship
WHO seeks to locate the 80 passengers on board the plane in which a cruise ship passenger was traveling, who died from hantavirus.
The strain of hantavirus detected in one of the cruise ship passengers Hondius, transferred to a hospital in South Africa, is the Andean, the only one transmissible between humansinformed the South African Minister of Health in a parliamentary committee.
Two of the passengers on the affected cruise ship were transferred to Johannesburg, one died and the other remains hospitalized.
“Initial tests show that it is, in fact, the Andean strain. This is the only strain, among the 38 known strains, that can be transmitted from one person to another”, explained the Minister of Health, Aaron Motsoaledi.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Sunday three deaths linked to a possible hantavirus outbreak, which could cause acute respiratory syndromeon board the ship.
The ship, with 149 people (88 passengers) of 23 nationalities, was traveling between Ushuaia, Argentina, where it left on March 20, and the Canary Islands, with stops in the South Atlantic for wildlife observation tourism.
According to the WHO, reports of illness on board were received between April 6 and 28, mainly fever e gastrointestinal symptoms, with rapid progression to pneumonia, acute respiratory syndrome and shock.
The WHO currently assesses how low o risk for the global population resulting from this outbreak and says it will continue to monitor the epidemiological situation and update the risk assessment.
Two ambulance planes landed in Praia in the last few hours to take three people to the Netherlands.
Spain receives ship
The cruise ship is anchored off Praia, in Cape Verde. But it will move to the Canaries.
Spain will receive the Hondius within 3 to 4 days, announced the Spanish Ministry of Health, specifying that “the exact port of arrival has not yet been determined”.
The Spanish Ministry of Health said, in a statement, that details of the protocol will be released as soon as they are defined by the WHO and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
Later it will also release “timely updates” on the implementation of the protocol, which it accepted “in accordance with international law and in the spirit of humanitarianism”.
ECDC is “carrying out a thorough inspection to the ship to determine which people that need to be withdrawals com urgency from Cape Verde. The rest will head to the Canary Islands, where they are expected to arrive in three or four days. The specific port has not yet been defined”, explained the Ministry of Health.
Once in the Spanish port, crew and passengers “will be duly examined, will receive the necessary care and be transferred to their respective countries.”
“Both medical care and transfers will be carried out in special spaces and transport, specifically prepared for this situation, avoiding any contact with the local population and ensuring the safety of healthcare professionals at all times”, he further assured.
According to the Spanish Government, the WHO explained that Cape Verde cannot carry out this operation and that the Canaries are “the closest place with the necessary capabilities”.
“A Spain has a moral and legal obligation to provide assistance to these peopleamong which there are several Spanish citizens”, added the Government, further disclosing that it accepted a formal request from the Government of the Netherlands to receive the doctor of the MV Hondius, which is in serious condition and will be transported to the Canaries on a hospital plane.
Passengers wanted
The WHO seeks locate the most of 80 passengers aboard the plane in which followed a passenger Dutch cruise ship, which was transferred from the island of Saint Helena to Johannesburg.
The 69-year-old Dutch woman, whose 70-year-old husband died on board the ship, landed in St Helena on April 24 “with gastrointestinal symptoms” and boarded a flight the next day to Johannesburg, South Africa, according to the WHO.
The woman he died in a hospital on April 26, and his Hantavirus infection has been confirmed on Monday.
“A start was started search to locate passengers” of the flight that operated this route, the organization added in a statement.
Authorities are looking for people from a flight operated by the South African airline Airlink on April 25, with 82 passengers and six crew on board, Karin Murray, director of sales and marketing at Airlink, told France-Presse (AFP).
The WHO, through its acting director of the Department of Prevention and Preparedness, Maria Van Kerkhove, indicated that it suspected “person-to-person transmission between individuals in very close contact”.
Just a weekly flight connects Johannesburg to this remote island in the South Atlantic, and the flight lasts approximately four hours.
South African authorities have requested that the airline inform affected passengers so that they can contact the Ministry of Health if they have not already been contacted, Murray added.
Low risk for Portugal
The Director General of Health stated this Tuesday that the hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship is a “circumscribed situation”, which currently represents a low risk for Portugal.
Rita Sá Machado told the Lusa agency that the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) is monitoring the situation with the WHO, within the scope of its functions and the International Health Regulations.
“There are no preventive measures for Portugal. There are indeed measures that are being considered, at this moment, inside the cruise ship”, he declared.
The most likely hypothesis is that the infection of hantavirus on the ship off Cape Verde occurred outside the cruise.
Asked about this hypothesis, Rita Sá Machado explained that the usual incubation period for hantavirus is between two to four weeksbut there are “more atypical” periods, which can be between one and eight weeks.
According to the official, the most likely source of infection is contact with aerosols from rodent urine, feces or saliva, as passengers on the cruise ship had “some contact with wildlife and that is why there may have been contact.”
