Madrid, Spain. Two new suspected cases of hantavirus were reported on Friday, one in Spain and one on Tristan da Cunha, linked to an outbreak that began on the luxury cruise ship MV Hondius. Experts are working to contain the cluster, which has been associated with three deaths.
Suspected case in Alicante
Spanish health authorities said a 32-year-old woman in the southeastern province of Alicante has symptoms consistent with hantavirus infection and is being tested. Secretary of State for Health Javier Padilla told reporters she was briefly sitting on a plane behind a Dutch woman who had contracted the virus on the MV Hondius.
The Dutch woman left the flight in Johannesburg feeling ill before it took off on April 25 and later died in hospital.
Suspected case on Tristan da Cunha
The UK Health Security Agency said a British man was also suspected of having the disease on Tristan da Cunha. Officials said he was a passenger on the Dutch-flagged ship, which stopped on the island from April 13 to 15.
WHO assessment and outbreak details
The new reports, in locations thousands of miles apart, have raised concern about the cluster of cases, though the World Health Organisation has repeatedly said the risk to the wider public is low and the virus does not transmit easily.
“Based on the dynamics of this outbreak, based on how it is spreading and not spreading amongst the people on the ship, the people who have disembarked, as well, we continue to consider the risk as low for the general population,” Anais Legand, WHO technical officer for viral threats, said in an online briefing.
Officials said both new suspected cases have links to the original cluster.
Cruise route and confirmed strain
The cruise left Argentina in March with around 150 passengers and stopped in the Antarctic and other locations before heading north to waters off Cape Verde, west of Africa, where it has briefly held this week after news of the cases emerged.
WHO officials confirmed that some cases on the ship are caused by the Andes strain of hantavirus, the only version that can spread between people, usually through prolonged and close contact with a person who is showing symptoms.
Deaths reported
Three people—a Dutch couple and a German national—have died following the outbreak, the first of its kind on a ship.
What precautions, if any, have health authorities advised for people who may have had contact with passengers from the ship?
