Three dead on cruise ship as hantavirus spreads across four continents

Three passengers are dead and health authorities on four continents are racing to locate more than two dozen people who disembarked a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship without contact tracing, The Korea Times reported Thursday.

The outbreak centers on Andes virus — the only hantavirus strain known to transmit between humans — which was confirmed May 2, three weeks after the first death aboard. The ship, MV Hondius, which departed from Argentina, is now sailing toward the Canary Islands with more than 140 passengers and crew still on board.

The first death occurred April 11, when a Dutch man died on board. A Dutch woman later died in South Africa, and a German woman died May 2 — the same day hantavirus was confirmed in a passenger, according to The Korea Times. A British man was evacuated to South Africa and remains in intensive care.

Between 29 and 40 passengers from at least 12 countries left the ship at St. Helena on April 24 without proper contact tracing, the report said. Oceanwide Expeditions, the ship's operator, counted 29 departures while the Dutch Foreign Ministry put the figure at approximately 40. An April 25 flight carrying 88 passengers departed St. Helena for Johannesburg with the infected Dutch woman briefly on board. A flight attendant in South Africa later showed symptoms after brief contact with her, The Korea Times reported.

Among those being tracked: a Swiss man who tested positive after leaving the ship, two Singaporean men under monitoring and two British passengers who are self-isolating. Contacts are being traced across at least four continents.

Andes virus spreads primarily through inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and is the only known hantavirus capable of human-to-human transmission. Symptoms typically appear one to eight weeks after exposure. Investigators believe the outbreak originated with a couple who traveled through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay on a bird-watching trip before boarding, visiting sites where rats carrying the virus are present. Argentina recorded 28 hantavirus deaths last year.

The World Health Organization arranged to ship 2,500 diagnostic kits from Argentina to laboratories in five countries. "We believe this will be a limited outbreak if the public health measures are implemented and solidarity is shown across all countries," Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud, WHO alert and response director, said according to The Korea Times. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said "morale has improved significantly since the ship started moving again."

WHO assessed the risk to the wider public as low, citing limited person-to-person transmission. No passengers or crew remaining aboard were symptomatic as of Thursday, though international contact tracing continues.