Three dead after suspected outbreak on Atlantic Ocean cruise ship MV Hondius

It is currently docked in Cape Verde

Initial symptoms include fatigue, fever and muscle aches, but it can also lead to serious respiratory illness and death.

“Detailed investigations are underway, including further laboratory testing and epidemiological investigations. Medical care and support is being provided to passengers and crew,” the WHO said in a statement published on X.

It added that it was coordinating a response to evacuate two symptomatic passengers from the ship and support passengers still on board.

The first victim was a 70-year-old man who died on the ship and whose body was disposed of in the British territory of St Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, South Africa’s Ministry of Health said in a statement. The man’s wife collapsed at an airport in South Africa while trying to catch a flight to her home country of the Netherlands, the department said. She died in a nearby hospital.

The department identified the patient in intensive care at a Johannesburg hospital as a British citizen.

It said the person became ill near Ascension Island, another remote island in the Atlantic Ocean, after the ship left St Helena and was transferred from there to South Africa.

There were about 150 tourists on board the ship at the time of the outbreak, the South African Health Department said. Several online tour operators said the Hondius, described as a specialized Arctic cruise ship, usually travels with about 70 crew members.

South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases, meanwhile, conducted contact tracing in the Johannesburg region to determine whether other people were exposed to the infected passengers in South Africa.

MV Hondius is operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, a Dutch travel company that offers cruise packages that allow you to explore the Arctic and Antarctic regions of the world.

Hantavirus is a group of viruses that can affect humans, although no human cases have been recorded in Australia.

The virus occurs all over the world, including in Asia, Europe and the US.

It gained attention last year after late actor Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, died of a hantavirus infection.

Hackman died of heart disease about a week later in their home.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus can cause a serious and sometimes fatal lung infection called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.

There is no specific treatment or cure for hantavirus infections, but early medical attention can increase the chance of survival.

Reported by Associated Press.

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