Source of ship’s hantavirus outbreak could also be linked to couple’s journey to landfill
This is a breaking news story and is being constantly updated by our reporters as the breaking news story develops
An ambulance boat carrying crew members wearing hazmat suits returns to the port of Praia after a visit to the cruise ship MV Hondius(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
A couple’s trip to watch birds at a landfill site may be the source of the hantavirus outbreak on a ship.
Two Argentine officials investigating the hantavirus outbreak have told AP that their government’s leading hypothesis on how the virus got onto the ship is linked to a couple’s birdwatching trip to a landfill site.
The anonymous officials said they think a Dutch couple contracted the virus while birdwatching in Ushuaia, the world’s southernmost city, in Argentina. Officials believe they then carried this on board the ship. Officials said the couple visited a landfill site on a birdwatching trip where they may have been exposed to rodents carrying the infection.
Previously, authorities said that Ushuaia and the surrounding province of Tierra del Fuego had never recorded a case of the hantavirus.
The deadly ‘rat virus’ outbreak on a stranded cruise ship has hit Europe with a case confirmed in Switzerland and three more sufferers headed for the Netherlands. The Swiss government confirmed a man is being treated in Zurich for hantavirus.
The unnamed patient was on board MV Hondius and returned to Switzerland from South America at the end of April. Swiss authorities have said there is no danger to the wider public despite fears about human to human transmission escalating.
It comes as the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed three cases of the virus have been evacuated from the Dutch cruise liner, currently docked at Cape Verde, an island off the west coast of Africa. The patients are set to be transported to the Netherlands to be treated. The total number of hantavirus cases related to the cruise liner now stands at eight.
The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health said in a statement: “One person has tested positive for hantavirus in Switzerland. The man had returned from a trip to South America with his wife at the end of April.
“Having noticed symptoms, he telephoned his GP and went to the University Hospital Zurich for further assessment. There, he was immediately placed in isolation.”
WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said of the evacuations: “Three suspected hantavirus case patients have just been evacuated from the ship and are on their way to receive medical care in the Netherlands in coordination with WHO, the ship’s operator and national authorities from Cabo Verde, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands.
“WHO continues to work with the ship’s operators to closely monitor the health of passengers and crew, working with countries to support appropriate medical follow-up and evacuation where needed.
“Monitoring and follow-up for passengers on board and for those who have already disembarked has been initiated in collaboration with the ship’s operators and national health authorities. WHO thanks all those involved. At this stage, the overall public health risk remains low.”
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