Hantavirus Outbreak

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Three cruise passengers dead several fighting for their lives after 'respiratory illness' outbreak​

Three people have died and a British man is fighting for his life after an outbreak of a 'severe respiratory illness' on a cruise ship in the Atlantic.

The World Health Organisation confirmed six suspected cases of a hantavirus onboard the MV Hondius, travelling from Ushuaia in Argentina to Cape Verde in Africa.

The illness is typically spread by rodents and can cause haemorrhagic fever.

A 70–year–old passenger was the first person to die onboard the boat – with his body currently on the island of Saint Helena, a British territory in the South Atlantic.

His 69–year–old wife also fell ill onboard and was evacuated to South Africa where she died in a Johannesburg hospital.

A 69–year–old Briton was taken to Johannesburg, where he was being treated in intensive care.

The WHO said this evening it was 'aware of the cases of severe acute respiratory illness on a cruise ship sailing in the Atlantic'.

It confirmed three people had died onboard, one of them as the victim of a hantavirus, and said it was investigating six suspected cases in total.

A spokesman said: 'To date, one case of hantavirus infection has been laboratory confirmed, and there are five additional suspected cases.

'Of the six affected individuals, three have died and one is currently in intensive care in South Africa.

'Investigations and a coordinated international public health response is underway. We will share more information as it becomes available.'

Laboratory testing and epidemiological investigations are also said to be taking place - with medical care and support being provided to passengers and crew.

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World braces for 'generation three' hantavirus cases: Expert warns we're days from cruise passengers passing on virus... with possible first case reported in France already​

Experts have warned the first 'generation-three' cases of hantavirus - which sees cruise passengers pass the disease on to the public - are likely just days away.

So far, no cases have been confirmed in people who were not on board the MV Hondius, so there is no evidence that the rat-borne virus has spread beyond the confines of the ship.

But that may change, following the transfer of a contact case in Brittany, northwestern France, to hospital on Tuesday morning.

The potential case was identified in Concarneau, a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany, and they have been sent to the University Hospital of Rennes for further checks.

'For now, this remains only a contact case, a person who has been in contact with someone carrying the virus. So there is no need to panic, we are only talking about a single case which has been contained,' said Quentin Le Gaillard, mayor of the Breton port city.

Twelve Dutch medical staff have also been quarantined for six weeks, after workers in a hospital in Nijmegen did not follow strict protocols while handling a hantavirus patient's blood and urine samples.

While no one has tested positive who wasn't already on the ship, the long incubation period of the virus means that it is impossible to know whether passengers who disembarked early on April 24 have passed on the disease.

According to Dr Steven Quay, all generation-two cases – those involving people who developed symptoms after contact with 'patient zero', Leo Schilperoord, 70 – took an average of 22 days to become sick.

That means generation-three cases – involving anyone who contracts the infection from the passengers – should start showing up around May 19, if the same incubation period of approximately three weeks remains true, he said.

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Midwesterner who was NOT on rat virus cruise is feared to have hantavirus, as millionaire Oregon doctor, 69, says he caught disease during expedition​

A man in Illinois is feared to have contracted hantavirus despite not being on the cruise ship linked to a recent outbreak across the globe.

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) said it is investigating a potential hantavirus case in Winnebago County, and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is conducting additional testing.

The CDC cautioned that its test results for the man's condition could take up to 10 days, and he will remain under strict observation.

Officials said the man was not on board the MV Hondius cruise ship where at least 11 people contracted hantavirus after a breakout last month, with three people killed by the deadly virus.

It is believed the man in Illinois contracted the virus by coming into contact with rodent droppings while cleaning a home, the IDPH said.

'Typically, we see it in cases like this one, where someone was cleaning an area where rats may have dwelled, and it may have aerosolized the either urine or feces from the rat that contain the virus,' Saint Anthony Hospital Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Alfredo Mena Lora, per ABC7.

Officials said the man showed mild symptoms that did not require hospitalization, and he is recovering as expected. He is believed to have a North African strain that is not spread person to person, and is different to the Andes strain that broke out on the MV Hondius cruise ship.

It comes as an American doctor from Bend, Oregon who took on the role of the cruise ship doctor after its initial doctor fell ill with hantavirus revealed that he has also tested positive for the deadly rat-borne virus.

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