5 U.S. states monitoring passengers who departed cruise ship stricken by hantavirus

The effort to monitor the spread of hantavirus from a cruise ship currently off the west coast of Africa is expanding, including in the United States, after health officials confirmed the virus on the ship is the rare strain that is transmissible from human to human.

At least 12 countries are currently monitoring people who had disembarked the MV Hondius before cases of hantavirus were confirmed, the World Health Organization said at a press conference Thursday. Those countries are Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Five U.S. states have said they are monitoring passengers who debarked the Hondius prior to any cases being confirmed on board for signs of the rare and often deadly disease: two each from Georgia and Texas, one from Virginia, one from Arizona, and an unspecified number from California, according to their respective state health departments. Each state has said none of the individuals is exhibiting any signs of the illness.

New Jersey officials said two people there who may have been exposed to a hantavirus patient while flying abroad are also being monitored. They were not on the ship and do not show any symptoms, CBS News New York reported.

President Trump confirmed Thursday night he has been briefed on the hantavirus. “It’s very much, we hope, under control,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “…I think we’re gonna make a full report about it tomorrow. We have a lot of great people studying it, it should be fine, we hope.”

Arizona health officials said in a Thursday news conference that the CDC notified them on May 5 that their state has one known cruise ship passenger. Local public health officials will monitor the individual for 42 days from departure. Dr. Joel Terriquez, medical director of infectious disease and prevention for Northern Arizona Healthcare, said there is a very “low risk” to the public, and there is no certainty that the passenger was exposed to someone with hantavirus.

But three people who were on the cruise have died, including a couple from the Netherlands and another woman from Germany, according to the World Health Organization.

The husband in the Dutch couple died on board the cruise ship on April 11, the company said. However, Oceanwide Expeditions, the company that owns the ship, confirmed on Thursday that 30 guests disembarked the Hondius on Saint Helena, an incredibly remote island in the middle of the South Atlantic, on April 24, and then returned on their own to their countries of origin.

“No samples were taken [from the man who died on board] and because his symptoms were similar to those of other respiratory diseases, hantavirus was not suspected,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said at a press conference Thursday.

Among those 30 who disembarked was the wife of the Dutch man who died on the cruise, according to Oceanwide Expeditions. Her health worsened on a flight from Saint Helena to Johannesburg on April 25, the WHO said. She then briefly boarded a KLM passenger flight in Johannesburg, but she was not allowed to fly due to her medical condition, the airline said. She died in South Africa the next day after not being allowed to fly home, according to the WHO.

A British man who exhibited symptoms on the ship was evacuated on April 27 to receive medical care in South Africa. His case was the first confirmed to be hantavirus on May 4, Oceanwide Expeditions said. The man remains hospitalized, but his condition was improving, the WHO said.

Officials then confirmed the Dutch woman’s blood tested positive for hantavirus. KLM said it was notified of the test results on May 5 and was notifying everyone on the flight that the woman had boarded.

South African authorities said Wednesday the strain of hantavirus identified in the Dutch woman and the man in the hospital is the Andes strain. The Andes strain, which is found primarily in Argentina and Chile, can be transmitted from human to human, unlike other strains of the virus, which are caused by direct contact with rodents.

“In previous outbreaks of Andes virus, transmission between people has been associated with close and prolonged contact, particularly among household members, intimate partners, and people providing medical care,” Tedros said at the press conference. The current situation surrounding the outbreak of the hantavirus on the cruise ship MV Hondius has raised concerns globally. Health experts have stated that the risk of a widespread outbreak is low, but the incident is testing the effectiveness of global health systems.

Two British individuals who were on board the ship have returned to the UK and are being monitored. They have been advised to self-isolate, although they are not showing any symptoms. Additionally, there are three asymptomatic individuals being monitored in Canada, two in Ontario and one in Quebec.

Three individuals with suspected hantavirus cases were airlifted from the ship, including German and Dutch passengers and a British crew member. The Dutch passenger and British crew member are currently stable and receiving treatment in the Netherlands. The German passenger, who was asymptomatic, returned to Germany.

The cruise ship departed from Cape Verde and is heading towards the Canary Islands. However, officials in the Canary Islands have expressed concerns about the ship docking at Tenerife. Canarias President Fernando Clavijo announced that the ship would be allowed to anchor off the islands but would not be permitted to dock.

In Argentina, where the Andes strain of the hantavirus originated, the health ministry has offered its technical capacity and resources to assist health systems dealing with the outbreak. The country has emphasized that no associated cases have been reported in Argentina and that they are actively collaborating with international agencies to contain the outbreak.

The Dutch couple who tragically died from the virus had traveled extensively through Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay before boarding the MV Hondius. They had visited areas where the species of rat known to carry the Andes virus was present, highlighting the importance of understanding the transmission of the virus.

Overall, the current situation with the hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius is being closely monitored by health authorities globally. The incident serves as a reminder of the importance of strong global health systems and collaboration in responding to public health emergencies.