A Dutch cruise ship with nearly 150 people aboard, including 17 Americans, was waiting for help off the coast of Cape Verde in the Atlantic Ocean on Monday after a suspected outbreak of the rare hantavirus killed three passengers and left at least three others seriously ill.
A Dutch cruise ship with nearly 150 people aboard, including 17 Americans, was waiting for help off the coast of Cape Verde in the Atlantic Ocean on Monday after a suspected outbreak of the rare hantavirus killed three passengers and left at least three others seriously ill, the World Health Organization and the ship's operator said.
The MV Hondius, which was on a weekslong polar cruise from Argentina to Antarctica and then several isolated islands in the South Atlantic, had requested help from local health authorities on Sunday after making its way to the island of Cape Verde off the coast of West Africa, but no one has yet been allowed to disembark, the company operating the cruise said.
There are 88 passengers — including one who has died — and 61 crew members, two of whom are sick, onboard, the operator said Monday. The passengers include 17 Americans, 19 from the U.K. and 13 from Spain, among other nationalities.
The three passengers to die were from the Netherlands and Germany. The German remains on board. A British man is in intensive care in South Africa.
A 70-year-old Dutch man who presented with fever, headache, abdominal pain and diarrhea was the first victim and died onboard on April 11, the ship's Netherlands-based operator Oceanwide Expeditions said in a statement giving new details. His body was taken off the vessel nearly two weeks later on the British territory of Saint Helena, some 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) off the African coast, and was awaiting repatriation.
His 69-year-old wife was transferred to South Africa at the same time but collapsed at a Johannesburg airport and died at a nearby hospital, the South African Department of Health said.
The ship then sailed on to Ascension Island, another isolated Atlantic outpost about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) to the north, where a sick British man was taken off the ship and evacuated to South Africa on April 27. He later tested positive for hantavirus, a rare infection spread by rodents that can cause serious respiratory illness or hemorrhagic fever, the South African health department said.
He is in a critical condition and is now in intensive care in a South African hospital, where he is being kept isolated, authorities said.
A third passenger died onboard on Saturday and was identified as a German national. The body is still on the ship, the cruise operator said. It specified that the three deaths are not yet confirmed to be hantavirus as the only person confirmed to have the virus is the man in intensive care in South Africa.
WHO said that while only one hantavirus case was confirmed through tests, the other five cases were suspected to be hantavirus
The cruise ship is asking Cape Verde for help
Two crew members still onboard the Hondius — one British, one Dutch — need urgent medical care, Oceanwide said, adding it was still awaiting permission from local authorities in Cape Verde on Monday to evacuate passengers and crew members. The company said it was considering moving to one of the Spanish islands of Las Palmas or Tenerife if it couldn't get people off the ship in Cape Verde.
The World Health Organization had said Sunday that it was working with local authorities and the ship's operators to conduct a "full public health risk assessment" and was trying to coordinate the evacuation of the two sick people from the ship.
"Detailed investigations are ongoing, including further laboratory testing, and epidemiological investigations," WHO said. "Medical care and support are being provided to passengers and crew. Sequencing of the virus is also ongoing."
