A cruise ship is waiting for help after a suspected outbreak of rare hantavirus onboard killed 3

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A Dutch cruise ship with around 150 passengers on board was waiting for help off the coast of Cape Verde in the Atlantic Ocean on Monday after a suspected outbreak of the rare hantavirus onboard killed three people and left at least three others seriously ill, the World Health Organization and the ship’s operator said.

The MV Hondius, which was on a weekslong polar cruise from Argentina to Antarctica and then several isolated islands in the South Atlantic, had requested help from local health authorities after making its way to the island of Cape Verde off the coast of West Africa, but no one was allowed to disembark, the company operating the cruise said late Sunday.

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A 70-year-old Dutch man who presented with fever, headache, abdominal pain and diarrhea was the first victim and died onboard while the ship was near the British territory of Saint Helena, some 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) off the African coast, the South African health department said. His body was taken off the vessel there and was awaiting repatriation.

His 69-year-old wife was transferred to South Africa but collapsed at a Johannesburg airport and died at a nearby hospital, the department said.

The ship then sailed on to Ascension Island, another isolated Atlantic outpost about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) to the north, where a British man was taken off the ship. He later tested positive for hantavirus, a rare infection spread by rodents that can cause serious respiratory illness or hemorrhagic fever, the health department said.

He is in a critical condition and is now in intensive care in a South African hospital, where he is being kept isolated, authorities said.

The third fatality has not been publicly identified, but the body is still on the ship, the cruise operator said.

WHO said the other five cases were also suspected to be hantavirus but had not been confirmed through tests.

It was not clear when the victims died. A marine traffic website said the ship left Ascension Island on April 27 for Cape Verde, about 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers) north.

The cruise ship is asking Cape Verde for help

Two crew members still onboard the Hondius needed urgent medical care, the Netherlands-based operating company, Oceanwide Expeditions, said in a statement.

Oceanwide said it was managing a “serious medical situation” on the ship but gave no details, nor did it say whether passengers were being quarantined.

“Local health authorities have visited the vessel to assess the condition of the two symptomatic individuals,” the cruise company said late Sunday. “They are yet to make a decision regarding the transfer of these individuals into medical care in Cape Verde.”

The World Health Organization said it was working with local authorities and the ship’s operators to conduct a “full public health risk assessment” and trying to coordinate the evacuation of the two sick people 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.”

The Dutch Foreign Ministry confirmed two of the victims were Dutch and said it was also exploring the possibilities of evacuating some people from the ship.

Hantavirus is rare and not often spread person to person

Hantaviruses, which are found throughout the world, are a family of viruses spread mainly by contact with the urine or feces of infected rodents like rats and mice. They gained attention after the late actor Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, died from hantavirus infection in New Mexico last year.

Hackman died around a week later at their home from heart disease.

In rare cases, hantavirus infections can be spread between people, WHO said. There is no specific treatment or cure, but early medical attention can increase the chance of survival.

Hantaviruses cause two serious syndromes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, affecting the lungs, and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, affecting the kidneys.

The CDC says the lung disease is more commonly seen in hantavirus infections in the Americas.

“While severe in some cases, it is not easily transmitted between people,” Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, said in a statement Monday. “The risk to the wider public remains low. There is no need for panic or travel restrictions.”

The weekslong cruise started in Argentina

South Africa’s Department of Health said the ship had left Ushuaia in southern Argentina for a cruise that included visits to Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and other isolated islands in the South Atlantic.

While Oceanwide Expeditions didn’t say exactly which cruise the ship was on, it advertises 33-night or 43-night “Atlantic Odyssey” cruises on the 107-meter-long (351-foot) Hondius on its website that follow that route, with passengers given the opportunity to visit some of the remotest islands in the world.

The Hondius has 80 cabins and a capacity of 170 passengers, the company said. It typically travels with 71 crew members, including a doctor, it said.

Though there was no information from authorities on the possible source of the suspected outbreak, a previous hantavirus outbreak in southern Argentina in 2019 killed at least nine people. It prompted a judge to order dozens of residents of a remote town to stay in their homes for 30 days to halt the spread.

South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases, meanwhile, was conducting contact tracing in the Johannesburg region to identify if other people in South Africa were exposed to the infected cruise ship passengers. The 69-year-old woman who died was trying to catch a flight at an airport in Johannesburg back home to the Netherlands when she collapsed.

“There is no need for (the) public to panic,” South Africa’s health department said, adding WHO was “coordinating a multicountry response with all affected islands and countries to contain further spread of the disease.”