The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the first confirmed hantavirus case linked to the outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship was infected before the vessel set sail.
The polar expedition ship departed Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 with about 150 passengers and crew for a voyage across the Atlantic to Cape Verde. The first patient, a 70-year-old Dutch passenger, developed symptoms including fever, headache, and mild diarrhoea on April 6 before suffering respiratory distress and dying on board on April 11.
According to WHO viral haemorrhagic fever expert Anais Legand, the timeline shows the man “could not have been infected on the ship, or on one of the islands” visited during the trip.
“The incubation period is between one and six weeks, but typically two to three weeks,” she said. “The man very clearly had exposure before boarding the ship. For this virus, there is no evidence that the disease can be transmitted to someone before symptoms appear.”
Legand added that the exposure was “certainly linked to a rodent,” noting that hantavirus is usually spread through contact with infected rodents or their urine, droppings, or saliva. Human-to-human transmission has only been documented with the Andes virus strain, which has been detected in some of the confirmed cases from the outbreak.
The Dutch couple had travelled in South America, including Argentina, before boarding. Argentine officials investigating the outbreak suspect they may have contracted the virus while bird-watching near a landfill in Ushuaia, where rodent exposure is possible.
Three people, the Dutch couple and a German national, have died in the outbreak. As of May 6, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said eight cases had been identified, with three laboratory-confirmed as hantavirus. Swiss authorities have also confirmed a case in a passenger who sought treatment in Zurich after disembarking.
On Wednesday, two patients infected with hantavirus and one suspected case were evacuated from the ship, which has since left Cape Verde and is heading to Spain’s Canary Islands.
