Update: WHO confirms cruise ship evacuation, Swiss hantavirus case

The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed the evacuation to the Netherlands of three suspected hantavirus patients from the cruise ship MV Hondius.

The evacuees include two members of the ship’s crew. The third patient being transported was closely associated with a German national suspected to have died of the disease on 2 May.

Long-distance aeromedical firms Redstar Aviation and European Air Ambulance (EAA) are confirmed to have been involved in the transfer.

Jérôme Pin, Deputy CEO and Chief Operations Officer of Fixed-Wing at EAA stated that one of the company’s Challenger 605 planes was dispatched to Cape Verde on 5 May to support the repatriation.

“The EAA aircraft and medical crew are currently conducting the repatriation of two patients from Praia [the capital of Cape Verde] to Amsterdam. The patients were disembarked from the MV Hondius earlier this morning and are being transported under strict medical and safety protocols.”

It follows the successful transfer of a UK national confirmed to have the disease to a hospital in South Africa earlier this week.

The outbreak is believed to have killed three people so far.

The MV Hondius has been instructed to remain in open waters. It is currently near Cape Verde, having been blocked from docking in Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

Case reported in Switzerland

Additionally, Swiss authorities have reported that a man who was previously a passenger on the vessel has also been confirmed to have contracted the virus.

According to the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), the man returned to Switzerland with his wife at the end of April, having been on a trip to South America. After displaying symptoms of the disease, he went to a hospital in Zurich and was isolated.

The infection was confirmed as hantavirus following tests conducted by the Geneva University Hospital (HUG). The man’s wife has not displayed any symptoms, but has self-isolated as a precaution. It is unknown whether the patient has spread the disease to other people.

A low overall public health risk

In a statement issued on 6 May, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of WHO, stated that the organisation “continues to work with the ship’s operators to closely monitor the health of passengers and crew, working with countries to support appropriate medical follow-up and evacuation where needed”.

He added that monitoring and follow-up for passengers on board and for those who had already disembarked had been initiated in collaboration with the ship’s operators and national health authorities, and that “at this stage, the overall public health risk remains low”.

Human-to-human transmission of hantavirus is relatively rare, with most cases originating from infected rodents, meaning that it spreads slowly. Consequently, authorities believe that the current outbreak can be contained.