Hantavirus: How is the outbreak being contained?
Passengers evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship are returning to their home countries, some with symptoms, many without. What happens to these people and
Passengers evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship are returning to their home countries, some with symptoms, many without. What happens to these people and what is being done to contain the spread? So far, three people have died, with several others taken ill, after a hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius. Hantavirus is a rare rodent-borne illness that has multiple strains of varying severity. With the ship now docked, passengers are being returned to their countries of residence. Each will face a slightly different process over the coming days and weeks, depending on their infection status and their country's reactions to such outbreaks. A Dutch couple, who were the first to become ill and later died, had been visiting South America before departing on the ship from Argentina's southernmost town, Ushuaia, in late March. Argentina's Ministry of Health are investigating whether the couple were infected by exposure to rodent droppings during a bird-watching tour at a landfill site in the town. The World Health Organization (WHO) have confirmed two of the deaths were from the virus, with the other "probable" at this stage. What happened on the MV Hondius cruise ship? Hantaviruses are relatively well known, if rare, and are mostly transmitted from rodents to humans. The symptoms are respiratory and those strains which can develop into 'hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS)' can have a "fatality ratio, reaching 40-50%" according to the WHO. Severity varies by region too. In Europe, strains generally cause milder illness and a fatality rate between one and 15%, with cases in North and South America often above 30%.
Those on the ship contracted the Andes strain. This is thought to be the only one capable of limited human-to-human transmission, and can cause HCPS. Close, prolonged contact, such as the conditions found on a cruise ship, is usually required to transmit the virus in this way. But the WHO and scientific community have been quick to say this is not comparable to COVID-19. "The Andes virus requires much, much closer, sustained contact between people, as we understand it," Ann Rimoin, a professor of Epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health in the United States, told DW. "I understand people have a lot of anxiety, having experienced the [COVID-19] pandemic, but this is a very different virus and a different set of circumstances," she added. An incubation period of six to eight weeks, during which symptoms may not be apparent, meant that illness on the MV Hondius took some time to present itself. According to the WHO, there were 147 people on board, seven of whom are confirmed cases and two probable. Meanwhile, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDPD), a European Union medical authority, says tracing passengers' movements before and after boarding the ship is critical to preventing the virus from spreading. What happens to the passengers on MV Hondius? The cruise ship docked in Tenerife over the weekend. Because most people who were on board are yet to test positive or show symptoms, the majority of passengers are either returning to their countries of residence or are already there.
The BriefWire