WHO warns MORE cases of rat virus likely as case is confirmed: updates

The World Health Organisation today warned more hantavirus cases could emerge following the deaths of three people onboard the MV Hondius.

However, it offered a glint of light at the end of the tunnel – saying the outbreak could be limited if precautions are taken.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in Geneva that five confirmed and three suspected cases had been reported overall, including the three deaths.

He added:

Given the incubation period of the Andes virus, which can be up to six weeks, it’s possible that more cases may be reported,” he said, referring to the rare strain detected aboard the Hondius, which can be transmitted between humans.

The Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands later announced another patient had tested positive.

But the WHO’s emergency alert and response director Abdi Rahman Mahamud insisted:

We believe this will be a limited outbreak if the public health measures are implemented and solidarity shown across all countries.

People thought to have contracted the virus are being treated or isolating in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and South Africa.

The MV Hondius cruise ship has been hit by a rare hantavirus outbreak which is believed to have killed three people so far.

The ship is sailing from Cape Verde towards the Spanish island of Tenerife where isolating passengers and crew will be finally be evacuated.

Watch our explainer on how the virus on board the ship has developed into a global health scare.

A total of 30 passengers left the hantavirus-stricken Hondius during its call at the remote British island of Saint Helena, it has emerged.

Previously, a figure of ’23’ had been touted – but the cruise ship’s Dutch operator, Oceanwide Expeditions has now revealed the exact number.

The company added that all people who left the ship had been contacted.

It said that on April 1, a total of 114 guests boarded the vessel before it left Ushuaia in Argentina for the cruise across the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Verde.

The operator added:

We are working to establish details of all passengers and crew who embarked and disembarked on various stops of MV Hondius since March 20.

The World Health Organisation has insisted being coughed on – as opposed to just sharing the same air in a room – is necessary (along with other close and prolonged contact) to become infected with the Andean variant of the hantavirus.

But is that definitely the case?

It comes after the organisation appeared to present a similar narrative about Covid for three months – insisting is ‘not airborne’.

British science writer Matt Ridley has suggested in the Spectator that in the case of hantavirus, the WHO is probably right.

He says:

Even if most of the five, possibly eight, cases on board the cruise ship caught it from each other, it will have been close contact that did the spreading.

Here’s why: zoonotic agents are often very good at killing people –Ebola, Marburg, Nipah, Hendra, Sars and Hanta have high fatality rates – but are not so good at infecting people.

It takes time for a virus to evolve a good match of its proteins to the receptors on the cells of a new host.

A team of Argentine investigators will return to Ushuaia in an attempt to determine the origins of the deadly hantavirus which killed three passengers on the MV Hondius.

Authorities have singled out a Dutch couple who may have been exposed to rat droppings at a rubbish heap during a bird-watching tour they took through the area before boarding the Atlantic cruise.

Experts will analyse rodents at the Ushuaia rubbish heap to see if they carry the Andes strain of the hantavirus, found in Argentina and Chile, that has been identified in the outbreak on the cruise ship.

Most hantavirus strains cannot spread person to person, but the Andes strain may be transmissible in rare cases.

You can read more about claims the disease originated after the deceased Dutch couple went birdwatching here:

Tenerife residents are said to be deeply concerned that the imminent docking of the MV Hondius could mark the start of a ‘Covid 2.0’ scenario.

You can read the full report by senior foreign news reporter Eliana Silver here:

A married Dutch couple who died of hantavirus travelled through Chile before falling ill on the MV Hondius cruise ship, it has emerged.

The two victims traveled to Chile and Uruguay before returning to Argentina on March 27 this year to board the ship on April 1, according to Argentine officials.

But Chile has insisted the pair were not infected in the country when they travelled through it – as they travelled around ‘during a period that does not correspond to the incubation time, so exposure to the virus would not have occurred’, the health ministry said.

The Andes virus is found in South America, and is the only strain of hantavirus with documented human-to-human transmission.

The Canary Islands have moaned about an alleged ‘colonial attitude’ in Spain which they say has forced them to accept the disease-struck MV Hondius on their shores.

Interestingly, they have compared this to the arrival of tens of thousands of irregular migrants to their land every year.

A columnist wrote in the daily Tenerife newspaper El Dia:

Just as what happened with the handling of migration, the temptation to transform the Canaries into a physical, operational and logistical barricade for future outbreaks of infections and pandemics must not succeed.

A race to trace dozens of passengers who disembarked the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship before its deadly outbreak was detected is in full swing.

Health authorities are scouring four continents for the missing passengers and trying to trace others who may have come into contact with them since then.

You can read more about the manhunt here:

The Canary Islands are said to be having Covid ‘flashbacks’ as the diseased MV Hondius arrives closer and closer to its shores.

It comes after authorities on the islands initially tried to reject orders from Spain to allow the ship to dock, amid fears it could bring the deadly virus onto its territory.

Marco Gonzalez, a retiree living on the island of Tenerife recalled early conversations of the pandemic that upended daily life in 2020, saying it was nothing, and then look what happened’.

Alicia Rodriguez, owner of an ice cream parlour in El Medano, said:

People are thinking about that, what happened five or six years ago. We paid the consequences for two years.

Two Britons who were medically evacuated from the MV Hondius are improving, according to the World Health Organisation.

Martin Anstee, 56 (pictured) was flown to the Netherlands on Wednesday to receive specialist medical care.

Another Briton, 69, was taken to a private health facility in Johannesburg on April 27.

Dr Maria Van Kerhove, of the WHO, said it was ‘actually very good news’ that both patients are now ‘stable’ and ‘doing better’.

The World Health Organisation has warned more cases of the deadly virus could emerge – though the outbreak will be ‘limited’, if precautions are taken.

It comes as another patient onboard the MV Hondius has tested positive for the virus, according to a hospital in the Netherlands.

A spokesman said:

It has been confirmed that the admitted patient has hantavirus. The patient has been informed and has given permission to share this information.