{"id":140050,"date":"2026-05-06T20:02:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/hantavirus-outbreak-another-passenger-contracts-disease\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T20:02:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:02:47","slug":"hantavirus-outbreak-another-passenger-contracts-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/hantavirus-outbreak-another-passenger-contracts-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Hantavirus outbreak: Another passenger contracts disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been confirmed that another passenger from the cruise liner linked to the outbreak of hantavirus has contracted the disease, which has claimed the lives of three people on board and sparked an international alert coordinated by the UN World Health Organization (WHO).<\/strong><\/p>\n

The individual, who is male, had been travelling on the Dutch-flagged vessel, the Hondius, at the centre of the outbreak.<\/p>\n

He is being treated in a Zurich hospital after returning to Switzerland and responding to an email from the ship\u2019s operator.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn line with the International Health Regulations (IHR),\u00a0WHO\u00a0is working with relevant countries to support international contact tracing, to ensure that those potentially exposed are monitored and that any further disease spread is limited,\u201d the agency said in a post on X.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, three of the ship\u2019s 147 passengers have died since it sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Argentina, to its current berth off the coast of Cabo Verde, according to the WHO.<\/p>\n

On X, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reported that three passengers \u201chave just been evacuated\u201d from the ship and were en route to the Netherlands for treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this stage, the overall public health risk remains low,\u201d Tedros stressed.<\/p>\n

Expedition ship<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Publicly available data indicates that the vessel was built in Croatia and launched in June 2018. The Hondius is around 108 metres long and is listed under ship identification number 9818709 with the\u00a0UN International Maritime Organization (IMO)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The vessel has capacity for 196 passengers and 72 crew; it is named after the 17th\u00a0century map publisher and engraver Jodocus Hondius.<\/p>\n

The expedition ship\u2019s maiden voyage in 2019 took it from Vlissingen in the Netherlands to the volcanic island of Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen in the Arctic Circle.<\/p>\n

The UN agency said that\u00a0the victims may have been infected with the disease prior to boarding. It has reported eight cases of infection so far, including three confirmed as Andes hantavirus\u00a0by laboratory testing.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the WHO said that one individual was in intensive care in South Africa, although their condition was \u201cimproving\u201d.<\/p>\n

Work to identify the virus has involved the\u00a0<\/strong>National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa and Geneva University Hospitals (HUG). The Pasteur Institute in Dakar and Argentina\u2019s National Administration of Health Laboratories and Institutes also provided further \u201ccritical\u201d support, WHO noted.<\/p>\n

Patient care is \u2018highest priority\u2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\u201cWHO will continue to work with countries to ensure that the patients, contacts, passengers and crew have the information and support they need to stay safe and prevent spread,\u201d the agency said.<\/p>\n

At a press conference on Tuesday, WHO said that the \u201chighest priority\u201d was to evacuate the two ill passengers still on board \u201cto make sure that they have the care that they receive\u201d.<\/p>\n

Once the ship reaches the Canary Islands, the agency\u2019s Dr Maria Van Kerkhove explained that the\u00a0Spanish authorities would carry out\u00a0a full epidemiological investigation and full disinfection of the ship, before assessing the risk passengers remaining on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have heard from quite a few people, you know, on the boat. We just want you to know we are working with the ship\u2019s operators. We are working with the countries where you are from. We hear you. We know that you are scared.\u201d said Dr. Van Kerkhove, WHO\u00a0Director (a.i) Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, speaking to journalists in Geneva on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

As a precaution, passengers have been asked to remain in their cabins while disinfection and other public health measures are carried out.<\/p>\n

The post Hantavirus outbreak: Another passenger contracts disease<\/a> appeared first on KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been confirmed that another passenger from the cruise liner linked to the outbreak of hantavirus has contracted the disease, which has claimed the lives of three people on board and sparked an international alert coordinated by the UN World Health Organization (WHO). The individual, who is male, had been travelling on the Dutch-flagged vessel, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}