I keep seeing bits of news about this but I haven’t really been paying attention to it. So if you’re in the same boat (pun intended) consider this your primer. Let’s start with a timeline courtesy of the AP:
- April 1 – The MV Hondius leaves from the south of Argentina headed for Antarctica.
- April 6 – ” A 70-year-old Dutch man becomes sick on board with fever, headache and mild diarrhea.”
- April 11 – The Dutch man dies on board. The exact cause is unknown.
- April 15 – Six more people get on the ship in the south Atlantic.
- April 24 – The man’s body is removed from the ship on the island of St. Helena.
- April 25 – The dead man’s wife, who is also ill, flies from St. Helena to South Africa.
- April 26 – While waiting for another flight in an airport in South Africa, the Dutch woman dies.
- April 27 – Another man on the ship is sick. He is evacuated to South Africa and placed in the ICU.
- April 28 – A German woman on board gets sick as the ship heads to Cape Verde.
- May 2 – The German woman dies on board. Meanwhile, the British man in the ICU in South Africa tests positive for Hantavirus.
- May 4 – The Dutch woman who collapsed in the airport and died in South Africa posthumously tests positive for Hantavirus.
So what is Hantavirus? Well, it’s pretty disgusting.
People typically develop hantavirus infection from exposure to the infected urine, saliva, or droppings of rodents, usually rats and mice.1 The risk of infection is highest among people who clean, work, play, or live in spaces with infected dried rodent droppings and urine. Rarely, hantavirus infection can be acquired through rodent bites or scratches or by eating contaminated food…
There is no specific medication to treat hantavirus infection, but patients should receive early supportive medical care, including medications to relieve symptoms and, if needed, to treat low blood pressure and low oxygen levels. Hospitalized patients with hantavirus pulmonary syndrome are typically treated with oxygen and may need mechanical ventilation (a breathing machine) or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), an advanced form of life support.
Yesterday, three more sick passengers were evacuated from the ship.
…three passengers suspected of having hantavirus were evacuated Wednesday morning.
Cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said in a statement that two of them had “acute symptoms.” The Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry said that “two sick passengers and a possibly infected passenger” were evacuated and transferred to specialized hospitals in Europe.
A British passenger who was evacuated Wednesday and hospitalized in the Netherlands told NBC’s U.K. broadcast partner, Sky News, that he was in isolation and undergoing tests but is doing OK.
“I have no idea how long I’ll be in the hospital for,” said Martin Anstee, an expedition guide.
After the sick were transported off the ship, it left Cape Verde headed for the Canary Islands.
The Hondius has almost 150 people on board. On Wednesday, it departed Cape Verde in West Africa, where it had been since at least Monday, after authorities refused it permission to dock.
Spain’s national government in Madrid had said that the Canary Islands would accept the ship and that it would begin a three-to-four-day journey. Once it is there, a full epidemiological investigation and disinfection will happen, the WHO said.
Among the 147 or so people remaining on the ship are a bunch of Americans including some from Texas and California. Finally, how is this thing spreading? Well, for the most part the hantavirus does not spread person-to-person. You have to be in close proximity to rats to get it. However, there is one exception. The Andes virus found in South America can spread from person-to-person. And that is the variety that people on the ship have. As mentioned up top, the ship originally left from south Argentina and the first couple who died had been touring Argentina before they got onboard. So that’s probably how this started.
The good news is that even the Andes variety does not spread easily like Covid or flu. So it’s likely that this chain of infection will stop soon but health authorities do need to track down people who were in contact with those who were ill, including anyone who might have been around the woman who died in the South African airport.
The Andean strain is the only type of hantavirus known to spread through prolonged close contact between household members or intimate partners, he said, adding that this “appears to be the case in the current situation.” Still, the number of cases could rise given the incubation period of the virus, he said, which can last up to six weeks.
So we may not know for sure this is over for a few more weeks. Presumably everyone on the ship is going to be quarantined for several more weeks.
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