South African health authorities are on high alert after receiving patients involved in a rare hantavirus outbreak aboard a passing cruise ship, which has left three dead and triggered a multinational response.
The Hondius cruise ship, sailing from Argentina to the Canary Islands and carrying 147 passengers and crew, is currently quarantined off Cape Verde.
Spain said on Tuesday it will receive the ship in the Canary Islands at the request of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Union, as authorities race to trace potential exposures.
Seven individuals on board have been reported ill and three have died, including one traveler who succumbed to the infection while in transit through Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport. A British citizen has also been airlifted to a Johannesburg hospital for treatment.
"He had arrived in quite a critical condition. The particular nature of this virus is that it does lead to leaky capillaries. So the blood flow in the lungs can be distributed and you end up with leaky lungs, so to say. And this person has needed ventilation for respiratory collapse," said Nazir Ismail, executive director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.
Hantavirus, though rare, is a potentially severe infection typically spread through contact with infected rodents.
The passage of infected patients through South Africa has caused a stir among the public and kept health authorities on watch, although experts have said there is little cause for concern.
"It's not endemic in South Africa at all, that's why it's causing a bit of a hype. So typically, we get it from animal excrement, and that is in the environment, closed areas, rodent infestations, etc. And that's how humans can contract it. Not generally human-to-human at all," said Veronica Ueckermann, head of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Pretoria. Nevertheless, South Africa is now working closely with the WHO to track down travelers, health workers, and others who may have been exposed.
"It is something that we are looking at very seriously. That's why we are doing contact tracing. The World Health Organization must help us because South Africa cannot have the capacity to do that alone when we are dealing with so many nations," said Aaron Motsoaledi, South African Health Minister.
South Africa on high alert as hospital treat patient infected with hantavirus from cruise ship
