Eight people have now contracted Hantavirus linked to a cruise ship, but it is not expected to become an epidemic, World Health Organisation (WHO) officials have said.
WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the assessed risk is low when the ship at the centre of the outbreak stops at the Canary Islands so passengers can disembark.
“So far, eight cases have been reported, including three deaths," he told a press briefing on Thursday. “Five of the eight cases have been confirmed as hantavirus, and the other three are suspected.” He said that it is possible that more cases may be identified, given the virus's incubation period.
“Given the incubation period of the Andes Virus, which can be up to six weeks, it’s possible that more cases may be reported,” he said. “While this is a serious incident, WHO assesses the public health risk as low.”
The MV Hondius has nearly 150 people on board and is expected to dock at Spain's Tenerife port within three days.
Two doctors are on board along with infectious disease experts from the WHO and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, who are conducting a medical assessment of everyone on board. Currently, none were showing any symptoms of the disease, officials said.
"The ship is now sailing for the Canary Islands, and we are confident in the capacity of Spain to manage this risk, and we are supporting them to do so," Mr Tedros said. "We assess the risk to the people of the Canary Islands as low."
A total of 29 people left the ship when it docked at the remote South Atlantic island of St Helena, including a Dutch woman who became unwell during onward travel and later died. The woman was accompanying her husband’s body, which was being repatriated after he died on the ship on April 11.
Tour operator Oceanwide Expeditions said the couple embarked in Argentina after a birdwatching tour in areas where rats are infected with the disease. The close-quarters patterns of hantavirus spreading have held up in these cases, and WHO officials do not believe the outbreak has similarities with the start of the Covid pandemic.
Dr Abdirahman Mahamud, director at the alert and response co-ordination department of the WHO’s Emergencies Health Programme, highlighted a similar outbreak in Argentina in 2018/19 which resulted in 34 cases.
He said: “If we follow public health measures, and the lessons we learned from Argentina are shared across all countries … we can break this chain of transmission and this doesn’t need to be a large epidemic.”
Dr Mahamud added: “We don’t anticipate a large epidemic. With the experience our member states have, and the actions they have taken, we believe that this will not lead to a subsequent chain of transmission.”
Dr Tedros told the press briefing that morale has improved on board since the ship left Cape Verde.
“I would also like to thank the ship’s operator for its co-operation, and the passengers and crew who are going through a very difficult and frightening situation,” he said. “I’ve been in touch with the ship’s captain regularly, including this morning. He told me morale has improved significantly since the ship started moving again.”
The people who disembarked at St Helena were from 12 nations. The UK notified the WHO that the group included seven Britons. They are being monitored by the authorities in destination nations.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said two Britons who already returned from the vessel are isolating at home. Those passengers flew back to the UK via Johannesburg after getting off at St Helena.
A British passenger, understood to be a 69-year-old man, was medically evacuated to South Africa on April 27 and is receiving care at a private health facility in Sandton, Johannesburg. Passengers who disembark in the Canary Islands will be asked to self-isolate in the UK for 45 days.
Professor Robin May, chief scientific officer at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), said “for the broader public, not directly involved in this cruise ship, the risk here is really negligible”.
