Hantavirus Outbreak Strikes Cruise Ship Off Cape Verde
Three passengers have died and several others are seriously ill on a cruise ship now anchored off Cape Verde, a group of islands west of Africa. The World Health Organization (WHO) believes the cause is hantavirus, a rare disease usually carried by rats and mice. The ship, called the MV Hondius, had been on a long polar voyage from Argentina to Antarctica before asking for medical help. Authorities in Cape Verde have refused to let anyone leave the ship because of public health concerns, leaving about 150 passengers and crew stranded near the port of Praia.
Hantaviruses can spread to people who breathe in tiny airborne particles from infected rodents' urine, saliva or droppings. Early symptoms feel like the flu— fever, muscle aches and dizziness— but the illness can become very serious if the lungs fill with fluid. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that more than a third of patients with these breathing problems die. The WHO says hantavirus rarely spreads between people, but its appearance on a ship is alarming because passengers have lived together in small spaces for weeks, and symptoms can take up to eight weeks to appear.
Two of the confirmed dead were a 70-year-old Dutch man, who died at sea on April 11, and his 69-year-old wife, who later collapsed at a Johannesburg airport. South African officials are now tracing people who may have met sick passengers. Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, the WHO's director for Europe, urged the public to stay calm, saying the wider risk is low and travel restrictions are not needed. The ship's operator may move the vessel to Spain if Cape Verde will not let passengers leave.