Bart H. Meijer
Updated ,first published
Amsterdam: Countries worldwide scrambled on Thursday to trace more than two dozen people who had left the cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak before it got marooned off the coast of Cape Verde, in an effort to prevent further spread of the disease.
Three people – a Dutch couple and a German national – died in the outbreak on the MV Hondius. Eight people, including a Swiss citizen, are suspected of having contracted the virus, according to the World Health Organisation.
The ship’s operator Oceanwide Expeditions said on Thursday that 29 passengers had left the ship at Saint Helena, where the ship made a stop on its way to Cape Verde, before the outbreak was reported. The Dutch government put that figure at about 40 people.
The people who left the ship to return to their home countries were of at least 12 different nationalities, Oceanwide Expeditions said. It said there were also two people whose nationalities were unknown.
The whereabouts of many of these passengers is not known.
One of those to disembark in Saint Helena was the wife of the Dutchman who had died aboard the ship on April 11. She fell sick herself and died before she could reach the Netherlands.
Oceanwide Expeditions had not previously acknowledged that dozens more people left the ship at that time.
Dutch airline KLM on Wednesday said it had taken the woman off a plane in Johannesburg on April 25 due to her deteriorating medical condition.
According to broadcaster RTL, a KLM stewardess who had been in contact with her has now been admitted to a hospital in Amsterdam after showing possible symptoms of a hantavirus infection.
The Dutch Health Ministry did not mention her job or who she might have been in contact with, but did confirm that a Dutch woman had been admitted to hospital and would be tested to determine whether she was infected with the hantavirus.
A spokesperson for KLM said the company could not “discuss individual cases” due to privacy concerns.
The virus found in the victims has been confirmed as the Andean strain, which can spread among humans through very close contact.
Experts have stressed that contagion is very rare, but the outbreak has put health authorities on high alert.
The United States’ Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it was closely monitoring the situation with US travellers on board the ship, adding that the risk to the American public was extremely low at the time.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said one French citizen had been in contact with a person who had fallen ill but was not currently showing symptoms.
Argentina’s Health Ministry has said it will carry out rodent trapping and analysis in the southern city of Ushuaia, the origin point of the cruise ship.
The MV Hondius, with nearly 150 people on board, headed for Spain late on Wednesday and is expected to dock in Spain’s Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, on Sunday, the EU’s Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said.
There was still no one showing any hantavirus symptoms on the ship, the ECDC, which is part of the medical team onboard the Hondius, said, adding that it was working with Spanish authorities to finalise a protocol for disembarkation.
Once in Tenerife, if they are still healthy, all non-Spanish citizens will be repatriated to their countries, while 14 Spanish passengers will be quarantined in a military hospital in Madrid.
Four Australians were on board the ship, though their identities have not been disclosed. In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was aware that Australians were on the ship but was not aware of any being affected by the reported hantavirus outbreak.
An Australian was among those who left the ship at Saint Helena on April 21 and returned home, according to a Spanish passenger.
Three patients were evacuated from the ship on Wednesday. One of them has been admitted to a hospital in the Netherlands, while another was transferred to Germany for medical care.
The plane carrying the third patient was set to land in the Netherlands early on Thursday after facing a delay due to a problem with the patient’s life support system.
Reuters, AP
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