Another passenger linked to the hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius arrived in Europe on Thursday, as health authorities intensified efforts to trace contacts and contain the spread of the rare virus strain.
The Netherlands-based vessel is currently heading toward Tenerife, Spain, after at least three passengers died from the infection, sparking international concern. However, global health officials, including the World Health Organization (WHO), have stressed that the likelihood of a wider outbreak remains low.
Confirmed and suspected cases connected to the cruise have now emerged in several countries, including Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and South Africa.
Dutch airline KLM confirmed that one of its flight attendants is undergoing testing after possible exposure to an infected traveler. The airline had earlier disclosed that one of the deceased passengers had briefly boarded a flight from Johannesburg to the Netherlands before being removed prior to departure.
Hantavirus is a rare disease commonly transmitted through contact with infected rodents and can cause severe respiratory illness, haemorrhagic fever, and cardiac complications. The strain detected aboard the MV Hondius is the Andes variant, one of the few known forms capable of human-to-human transmission.
Health officials believe an infected passenger boarded the ship in Argentina before unknowingly transmitting the virus to others during the Atlantic voyage. The disease has an incubation period ranging from one to six weeks.
Oceanwide Expeditions, operator of the vessel, said a medical evacuation flight carrying a sick passenger landed in Amsterdam on Thursday, following the evacuation of three others a day earlier. The company added that no symptomatic individuals currently remain onboard.
The UK Health Security Agency stated that two people who returned from the cruise have been advised to self-isolate, although both are asymptomatic. Authorities maintained that the public risk remains “very low.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reassured the public that the global threat posed by the outbreak is limited, a position also echoed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Investigations into the source of the outbreak are ongoing. Argentine authorities plan to test rodents in Ushuaia, the southern port city where the cruise began on April 1.
The first known victim, a Dutch passenger, died onboard on April 11, initially believed to have died of natural causes. His wife later died in South Africa after testing positive for hantavirus, prompting authorities to raise the alarm and begin tracing passengers and flight contacts.
Officials are now working to identify and monitor all passengers and crew who boarded or left the ship at various ports during the voyage.
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