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A suspected hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean has killed three people and sickened at least three others, the World Health Organization (WHO) and South Africa’s Department of Health said on Sunday.
In a statement to The Associated Press, WHO said an investigation was ongoing but that at least one case of hantavirus had been confirmed. Hantavirus, found throughout the world, is spread by contact with rodents or their urine or feces.
One of the patients was in intensive care in a South African hospital, the United Nations health agency said, adding that it was working with authorities to evacuate two other passengers with symptoms from the ship.
“Detailed investigations are ongoing, including further laboratory testing, and epidemiological investigations,” WHO said.
“Medical care and support are being provided to passengers and crew. Sequencing of the virus is also ongoing.”
David Safronetz, chief of special pathogens at the National Microbiology Lab, says most hantavirus infections in Canada happen in the spring and early summer, often when people are cleaning up after mice when opening a space that has been closed for the winter like a cottage. He outlines what people can do to reduce their risk of getting infected.
The South African Department of Health said the outbreak happened on the MV Hondius cruise ship, which had left Argentina about three weeks ago for a cruise that included visits to Antarctica, the Falkland Islands and other stops on the way to Spain’s Canary Islands on the other side of the Atlantic.
The MarineTraffic global shipping website identified the vessel as a Dutch-flagged passenger cruise ship. It located it as docked in Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, on Sunday night.
The first victim was a 70-year-old man who died on the ship and whose body was removed in the British territory of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, South Africa’s Health Department said in a statement. The man’s wife collapsed at an airport in South Africa trying to take a flight to her home country of the Netherlands, the department said. She died at a nearby hospital.
The department identified the patient in intensive care in a hospital in Johannesburg as a British national. It said that person fell ill near Ascension Island, another remote island in the Atlantic, after the ship left Saint Helena and was transferred from there to South Africa.
About 150 tourists were onboard the ship at the time of the outbreak, the department said. Several online tour operators said the Hondius, which is described as a specialist polar cruise ship, usually travels with about 70 crew members.
South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases, meanwhile, was conducting contact tracing in the Johannesburg region to identify whether other people were exposed to the infected passengers in South Africa.
While rare, WHO said hantavirus infections can be spread between people and they can lead to severe respiratory illness.
There is no specific treatment or cure, but early medical attention can increase the chance of survival.
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