A voyage to the far reaches of the planet on a ship packed with over 100 other people sounds like a recipe for disaster, not a luxury vacation. A suspected hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius has killed three passengers over the past month, with at least three others seriously ill. The Dutch vessel requested help off the coast of Cape Verde, but the island country’s health ministry won’t allow the ship to dock. This incident is reminiscent of the time the Diamond Princess was quarantined off the coast of Japan in February 2020 due to COVID-19 cases on board. Hantavirus isn’t as contagious as the coronavirus, but it’s far more lethal.
The MV Hondius left Ushuaia in southern Argentina on April 1 to begin a lengthy cruise. There were 88 passengers and 61 crew members onboard to spend over 30 days exploring Antarctica and several remote islands in the South Atlantic. However, a 70-year-old Dutch man died on the Hondius on April 11. Things would quickly escalate into a public health matter. According to the Associated Press, his 69-year-old wife left the ship in South Africa to fly back to the Netherlands. She later collapsed in the middle of O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, the continent’s second-busiest airport. The woman was hospitalized and died. Her blood tested positive for the hantavirus.
Hentavirus is dangerous, but rarely transmitted person-to-person
South Africa has already begun contact tracing, but it’s highly unlikely that there will be a global pandemic. Hentavirus is rarely ever transmitted person-to-person. According to the World Health Organization, it’s a rodent-borne illness and is typically contracted by contact with an infected rodent or its urine, feces, or saliva. The source of the outbreak is still unknown because the virus can lie dormant for weeks before its flu-like symptoms emerge. The source could determine the lethality of this hentavirus variant. Infections in the Old World have a case fatality rate between 1% and 15%, while it can reach 50% in the Americas.
The MV Hondius is still in a tricky situation as it sits off Cape Verde. The body of the third victim, a German passenger, is still on board. Two crew members are showing symptoms and urgently need medical care. Cape Verde has sent a small medical team to the vessel three times, but WHO is planning medical evacuations. The hope is to transfer people from the Hondius to the airport by ambulance. If I didn’t have the urge to go on a cruise before, it’s most certainly gone now.
