Deaths and cases of hantavirus on the MV Hondius cruise ship have raised international alarm, as health authorities try to identify "patient zero" and trace the contacts of infected people.
According to the World Health Organization, three people have died, while eight cases of hantavirus have been recorded in total, five of them confirmed by laboratory tests. One body still remains on board.
Two confirmed patients and one suspected case were transferred from the ship on Wednesday. Dutch authorities identified the evacuees as a 41-year-old Dutch national, a 56-year-old Briton and a 65-year-old German, who will be treated in specialist hospitals in Europe.
The Dutch company Oceanwide Expeditions, which operates the ship, said two of the evacuees are in serious condition, while the third person is not showing symptoms but had close contact with a German passenger who died on board on May 2.
Experts said the passengers were infected with the Andes virus, a variant of hantavirus found mainly in Argentina and Chile. The virus is rarely transmitted from person to person and usually requires close contact.
WHO expert Maria Van Kerkhove stated that "this is not the next COVID," but warned that it is a serious infectious disease that can cause severe respiratory failure.
Authorities in Switzerland, South Africa and the United Kingdom are racing against time to trace people who may have come into contact with infected passengers.
A passenger who tested positive is being treated at a hospital in Zurich, while Swiss authorities are investigating his itinerary after disembarking on the island of Saint Helena.
Two British citizens who returned to the United Kingdom have been placed in isolation, although they are not showing symptoms.
The MV Hondius had set sail from South America on April 1 for Antarctica and the South Atlantic islands. The first suspected case was a 70-year-old Dutchman who fell ill on April 6 and died on board on April 11 while the ship was between South Georgia and Saint Helena. His wife, who was showing symptoms, was transferred to South Africa but died on April 26 after collapsing at Johannesburg airport.
As the ship continued its journey, new cases began to appear gradually, causing the virus to circulate for weeks without being identified. It was only after tests were carried out on a British man in intensive care that authorities finally confirmed the presence of hantavirus, some 21 days after the first patient died.
