Hantavirus cruise company says 29 passengers disembarked before the outbreak was confirmed

The owner of the MV Hondius, the ship affected by an outbreak of rodent-borne disease hantavirus, said 29 passengers disembarked at Saint Helena, a British island in the South Atlantic Ocean, before the presence of the virus was confirmed on board. In a press release on Thursday, Oceanwide Expeditions said the passengers, from over a dozen different nationalities, disembarked when the body of the first guest who passed away on board — a Dutch man —- was removed from the cruise at the island. Two other passengers — the wife of the first victim, and a German national — later died, and tests confirmed they had all contracted hantavirus. The company confirmed three infected individuals — two symptomatic and one asymptomatic — have been transferred away from the ship via helicopter and that “no symptomatic individuals are present on board.” It also detailed the country of origin of the passengers who disembarked at Saint Helena as: Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, the United Kingdom and the United States, with two passengers whose nationalities remain unclear.  “These disembarked guests have all been contacted by Oceanwide Expeditions. We are working to establish details of all passengers and crew who embarked and disembarked on various stops of m/v Hondius since March 20,” they said, referring to the date when the ship left Ushuaia, the capital of Tierra del Fuego, it’s last port before the outbreak began.  WHO: “Not a new pandemic” The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed in a press conference on Thursday that contact tracing is under way in several countries for passengers who left the ship. The organization is also tracking the passengers of a flight from St. Helena to Johannesburg, in South Africa, on 25 April, which the wife of the first victim took after disembarking along with her husband’s body. The Dutch woman died shortly after.  According to the WHO, at least one case of contagion aboard the flight has been confirmed, with a 69-year-old stewardess presenting low-risk symptoms. The organization stressed that human-to-human transmission of the hantavirus —  which only occurs with the Andes strain, detected in this outbreak — is rare and requires prolonged close contact. “This is not the start of a Covid pandemic,” said infectious disease epidemiologist Maria van Kerkhove, explaining this virus requires “close, intimate contact” to spread. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed that, while the situation is considered a “serious incident,” the organization currently assesses the public health risk as low.