3 patients with suspected hantavirus evacuated from cruise ship as new case confirmed in Switzerland

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PRAIA, Cape Verde — Three patients with suspected hantavirus infections were evacuated from a cruise ship and being flown to the Netherlands on Wednesday, the UN health agency said, as the vessel at the center of a deadly outbreak remained off Cape Verde with nearly 150 people on board waiting to head to Spain’s Canary Islands.

Eight cases have been recorded, three confirmed by laboratory testing, according to the World Health Organization. Three people have died. Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings and can spread person-to-person, though the WHO calls that rare.

Among the patients being evacuated is the ship’s doctor who earlier was in “serious condition” but has improved, Spain’s health ministry said. The company has also told The Associated Press the doctor is in stable condition.

The Dutch foreign ministry said the three being evacuated were a 56-year-old British national, a 41-year-old Dutch national and a 65-year-old German national who would be “immediately transferred to specialized hospitals in Europe.”

Two of them present acute symptoms, ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions said.

Spanish officials said the passengers and crew members left on the ship are without symptoms. The journey to the Canary Islands will take three or four days, Spain’s health ministry said. The arrival of the boat “won´t represent any risk for the public,” Health Minister Mónica García said.

Meanwhile, authorities in Switzerland said a former passenger of the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius luxury cruise ship was being treated at a Zurich university hospital after testing positive for the Andes strain, which WHO says may spread between people.

South African authorities earlier said two other passengers who were transferred there tested positive for that strain. One died in South Africa.

Hantavirus infections are relatively uncommon. The WHO says eight countries in the Americas documented 229 cases and 59 deaths last year.

The wide-ranging ship has been at sea for over a month

The ship left Argentina on April 1 on an Atlantic cruise and was scheduled to include stops in Antarctica and several remote South Atlantic Ocean islands. However, the itinerary may have changed because of the situation on board.

The ship is now in the Atlantic off West Africa’s island nation of Cape Verde, and the World Health Organization said passengers are isolating in their cabins.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the three patients with suspected hantavirus cases were on their way to the Netherlands.

“At this stage, the overall public health risk remains low,” Tedros said.

Harald Wychgel, a spokesperson for the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, said two doctors were on their way from the Netherlands to Cape Verde to join the ship.

Spain’s health ministry said late Tuesday it would receive the ship in the Canary Islands after a request from WHO and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, despite some opposition from local authorities.

The regional president of Spain’s Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, said Wednesday he was worried the ship’s arrival could put the local population at risk and demanded an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

South African tests confirm the Andes virus

South African health authorities said they identified the Andes strain of hantavirus in two passengers and Swiss authorities said they identified the same virus in their affected patient.

The WHO says the Andes virus, a specific species of hantavirus, is found in South America, primarily in Argentina and Chile. It can be spread between people, though this is rare and only through close contact such as by sharing a bed or food, experts say.

The South African Department of Health said its results came from tests performed on the passengers after they were removed from the ship and flown to South Africa.

One of them, a British man, is in intensive care. The other collapsed and died in South Africa and tests on that person were performed posthumously.

It’s not clear when the patient in Switzerland left the ship

The Swiss health office initially said the patient hospitalized there had “returned from a trip to South America” with his wife at the end of April. Simon Ming, a spokesperson for the office, clarified in an email the patient got off the ship during its stop in St. Helena, an island in the South Atlantic.

It was not immediately clear when or how he returned to Switzerland, but the cruise company previously said the woman who died in South Africa was flown there from St. Helena. It’s not clear if the man and the woman who died got off the ship at the same time.

The patient’s wife hasn’t shown symptoms but is self-isolating as a precaution, the statement said.

“There is currently no risk to the Swiss public,” the public health office said.

The ship stopped at several remote islands

The WHO has said the ship’s itinerary included stops across the South Atlantic, including mainland Antarctica and the remote islands of South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena and Ascension.

The cruise company had announced some details of two stops: at St. Helena, where the body of the Dutch man suspected to be the first hantavirus case on board was taken off the ship. His wife left the ship at St. Helena and flew to South Africa, where she died.

The company said a British man was later evacuated from the ship at Ascension Island and taken to South Africa.

The company has not said if other people left the cruise ship at those or other locations.

The South African health ministry said officials had traced 42 out of 62 people, including health workers, they believe had contact with the two infected passengers who traveled there. Those 42 tested negative for hantavirus.

But 20 people still needed to be traced, including five people who may have been on flights to South Africa with some of the passengers as well as flight crew members. Some may have now traveled overseas, the ministry said.

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By Annie Risemberg, Jamey Keaten, Chinedu Asadu and Gerald Imray

Keaten reported from Geneva, Asadu from Abuja, Nigeria, and Imray from Cape Town, South Africa. Renata Brito and Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Geir Moulson in Berlin, and Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Michelle Gumede and Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg contributed to this report.