Two suspected cases of hantavirus were reported on Friday, with one in Spain and the other on the remote South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, according to officials.
A Spanish woman who was on the same flight as a passenger who died of hantavirus is currently being treated at a hospital for a suspected infection, local officials said Friday.
The Spanish Health Ministry said in a Friday briefing that a 32-year-old woman was being treated in the city of Alicante.
The woman was “sitting two rows behind the person who died from hantavirus, a person who tested positive, having had only brief contact as they were on board the plane for a short time,” said Secretary of State for Health Javier Padilla.
Padilla noted that others on the flight have developed potential symptoms but later tested negative, including a Dutch flight attendant.
“This is what happened with the flight attendant on the KLM flight, and we are confident that the same will happen here,” he said during the news conference.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday that the Dutch KLM flight attendant had been admitted to a hospital in Amsterdam on Thursday with signs of a possible infection but had tested negative.
The infected woman travelled from St. Helena to Johannesburg on a commercial flight and was trying to take another flight home when she fell seriously ill at O.R. Tambo International Airport. She died at a nearby hospital on April 26. She was one of dozens of cruise ship passengers who disembarked at St. Helena.
The woman’s 70-year-old husband was the first passenger to die on board the MV Hondius on April 11.
In a second case, a British government official said that a person with a suspected case of hantavirus on the island of Tristan da Cunha is a resident who was hospitalized.
Stephen Doughty, the U.K. minister of overseas territories, confirmed the news in a statement shared on Tristan da Cunha’s official website, writing, “I wanted to reach out personally and say I am very sorry to hear that Tristan has been affected by the health situation concerning the MV Hondius cruise ship.”
“My thoughts are with the islander currently in hospital and their spouse who is isolating. I also understand you [Tristan da Cunha] have four islanders currently on St Helena that travelled on the ship,” he continued.
Doughty said that he is “personally tracking events” and will make sure to share “urgent advice and appropriate support as a priority.”
On Thursday, the WHO said there have been five confirmed cases of the virus and three suspected cases as health officials continue to seek and monitor passengers who left the MV Hondius along its voyage.
Hantavirus usually spreads by inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and, in rare cases, can be transmitted from person to person, according to the WHO. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
There is no specific treatment or cure for hantavirus, but early medical attention can increase the chance of survival.
WHO working on guidance to contain hantavirus outbreak
World Health Organization officials are developing step-by-step operational guidance for the safe disembarkation and onward travel of passengers and crew once they reach land on Sunday.
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Half a dozen current and former WHO officials and hantavirus experts said the outbreak could be managed by adapting standard public health steps, such as isolating sick passengers or those who may have been in contact with them.
The WHO has arranged for the shipment of 2,500 diagnostic kits from Argentina to laboratories in five countries to strengthen testing capacity.
Officials are seeking tips from Argentina, where a previous outbreak of the Andes virus was snuffed out in 2019.
“If we follow public health measures and the lessons we learned from Argentina … we can break this chain of transmission. This doesn’t need to be a large epidemic,” Abdi Rahman Mahamud, director of the WHO’s alert and response co-ordination department, said.
The WHO may also recommend that some people with links to the outbreak take their temperature daily for at least 42 days, as the Andes strain has a long incubation period, Anais Legand, WHO technical officer for viral threats, said at an online briefing on Friday.
“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,” Legand said during the briefing.
National authorities may also be asked to set up regular contact with those people, and give them a phone number to call if they feel at all unwell, she added.
Passengers are being split into high-risk and low-risk contacts based on their interactions with sick travellers, the WHO said. Contact tracing is also key for anyone who has already left the ship.
What is Spain’s plan for passengers?
On Friday, the Spanish Health Ministry released its protocol plan for the passengers disembarking from the MV Hondius.
Spanish authorities are preparing to receive more than 140 passengers and crew members on board a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship headed for the Canary Islands, where health officials have said they will perform careful evacuations.
The vessel is expected to reach the Spanish island of Tenerife, off the coast of West Africa, on Saturday or Sunday.
“They will arrive at a completely isolated, cordoned-off area,” said Virginia Barcones, Spain’s head of emergency services, on Thursday.
The Public Health Commission approved the protocol for handling people disembarked from the ship with the aim of strengthening the protection of public health and ensuring a co-ordinated response throughout the territory.
The protocol requires passengers and staff who were on the ship between April 1 and May 10 to quarantine at a Madrid military hospital under active monitoring. This also includes anyone who had close contact with a confirmed case.
“Passengers will remain in single rooms without visitors,” the health ministry said. “During this period, they will undergo a PCR test upon arrival and another seven days later. Active surveillance will also be conducted, including twice-daily temperature checks to detect any compatible symptoms early.”
If a patient develops a fever, shortness of breath, muscle aches or vomiting, they will be transferred to a negative-pressure isolation room, the health ministry said.
If a laboratory test is positive by the National Microbiology Center, the patient will become a confirmed case and will be admitted to a high-level isolation and treatment unit until clinical recovery, the ministry added.
“The [protocol] document also incorporates detailed biosafety measures for healthcare, laboratory and cleaning personnel, including the use of personal protective equipment, protocols for handling and transporting biological samples and cleaning and disinfection procedures adapted to the level of biological risk associated with the Andes virus,” the news release said.
Oceanwide Expeditions update
On Friday, Oceanwide Expeditions, the Dutch company that operates the cruise ship, said that it “continues to respond to an ongoing medical situation aboard the m/v Hondius.”
“The three individuals transferred by medicalized aircraft from m/v Hondius to the Netherlands on 6 May remain under the care and screening of medical professionals,” the company added.
It said that currently “no symptomatic individuals are present on board.”
“The situation on board m/v Hondius remains calm, and guests and crew continue to follow procedures, now under the guidance of the medical team. More information is available via the WHO and other responsible authorities,” the company added.
The ship is estimated to arrive at the port of Granadilla, Tenerife, in the early hours of May 10, but the company notes that this is “subject to change.”
“Preparations regarding our point of arrival, quarantine and screening procedures for all guests, and the onward travel plans for all guests and affected crew are being led by organizations from a number of countries, including the WHO, RIVM, and Dutch authorities, in close cooperation with Spanish government authorities,” the updated statement said.
Oceanwide Expeditions noted that it is not involved in planning and facilitating medical testing, screening and onward journeys following the disembarkation or evacuation of guests aboard MV Hondius.
The company also provided more details on the itinerary involved and the disembarkation of guests on Saint Helena on April 24.
“The involved itinerary of m/v Hondius is the Atlantic Odyssey voyage, which departed Ushuaia, Argentina, on 1 April, and was scheduled to end in Praia, Cape Verde, on 4 May. This can be booked in different ways. Guests can choose to travel with the vessel from Ushuaia and disembark in Saint Helena. Alternatively, they can remain with the vessel and continue to Cape Verde,” the company said, sharing the itinerary.
“Disembarkation on 24 April of 32 guests, adjusted from 30 we communicated earlier, and including the Dutch national who passed away on 11 April, and the Dutch national who accompanied the body and later passed away during their transit home on 26 April,” Oceanwide Expeditions said.
What are other countries doing?
The United States has agreed to send a plane to the Canary Islands to repatriate its 17 citizens from the cruise ship, Barcones said. The British government also said it will charter a plane to evacuate the nearly two dozen British citizens on board.
Consular officials are on their way to the Canary Islands to meet with four Canadians on board a deadly hantavirus-stricken cruise ship.
The federal government says three people with connections to the cruise are isolating at home in Ontario and Quebec and are asymptomatic.
Officials have not said when and where the affected people arrived in Canada, or whether public health officials would brief the media.
Canary Islands President Fernando Clavijo said that his administration is certain that “no passenger” of the MV Hondius will disembark until their evacuation plane is “already on the tarmac.”
“Once it is guaranteed that the ship will not touch land, as it will anchor just outside the port of Granadilla, the most important thing is to coordinate the transfer of these passengers from the ship to the dock and from the dock directly to the airport,” Clavijo said.
Clavijo’s comments came before the Spanish Health Ministry released its protocol plan for the passengers disembarking from the ship.
—With files from The Associated Press and Reuters
