The eleventh Hantavirus case!He came from the “Hondius”: the next passenger in Canada tested positive

After the hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship “Hondius,” a passenger evacuated from the ship in Canada tested positive. The sick person was in quarantine in the Canadian state of British Columbia and had tested “preliminarily positive” for the Andes variant of the hantavirus, said the Canadian Ministry of Health. He was one of four Canadian passengers who traveled on board the “Hondius”. It would be the eleventh hantavirus case.

The patient and his partner were taken to hospital for further observation with mild symptoms. The hantavirus outbreak on the “Hondius” occurred during a cruise from Argentina to Cape Verde. It was the Andes virus, the only hantavirus strain that has been proven to be transmittable from person to person.

More than 120 passengers and crew members left the cruise ship about a week ago and began their journey home from Tenerife on special aircraft. Because of the long incubation period and the potentially fatal course of the infection, the people brought in by the “Hondius” will continue to be monitored medically.

The World Health Organization (WHO) gave the all-clear on the Hantavirus outbreak during the week. Genetic analyzes and comparisons with previous samples have so far shown no evidence of easier transmissibility or severe cases of disease in the current outbreak, said WHO expert Maria Van Kerkhove in Geneva.

According to the latest WHO data, there are ten hantavirus cases associated with the cruise ship “Hondius”, eight of which have been confirmed in laboratories. In an eleventh person from the United States, an initial suspicion of infection was not confirmed after several tests, said Van Kerkhove. Three infected people have died, including a woman from Germany. All three are now laboratory confirmed.

Sources used: ses/AFP/dpa