There are growing fears a ‘rat virus’ pandemic could emerge and potentially rip through countries after an outbreak on a cruise liner killed three people. The ship called HV Hondius was forced to quarantine passengers due to hantavirus spreading on board the liner.
The disease, which leaves patients suffering fever, extreme fatigue, vomiting, diarrhoea, or shortness of breath, is believed to be a mutated strain which can be transmitted from human to human called Andes. Hantavirus usually infects humans via the droppings, urine and salvia of rats.
However, rodents were not found on board the luxury cruise liner, leading experts to suggest the disease may be being spread from person to person. As the tourists on board MV Hondius have started to arrive home, health authorities across three continents are closely monitoring further outbreaks of the disease, which kills up to 40% of those infected.
Britain has also been impacted with two cruise passengers self-isolating in the UK. As the globe is on red alert, the Daily Star has collated all the locations hit by the ‘rat virus’.
MV Hondius
The Dutch cruise liner at the centre of the hantavirus outbreak is sailing for the Canary Islands after being granted permission to dock by the Spanish government. However, leader of the region Fernando Clavijo has said the ship and the 150 on board cannot be hosted by the archipelago off the coast of Africa.
Mr Clavijo has demanded an urgent meeting with the Spanish prime minister after citing safety concerns. Despite the objection, the luxury vessel is continuing on its journey and is expected to reach the Canary Islands in three or four days.
Tracking data from the CruiseMapper shows MV Hondius left Cape Verde’s Praia cruise port on May 6 and is currently sailing north along the west coast of Africa. On April 25, the vessel was docked on the remote island of Saint Helena where a Dutch woman and her husband, who died on board of hantavirus, disembarked.
The woman then boarded a flight to Johannesburg, South Africa where she is understood to have died while being treated for the virus.
Europe
Switzerland confirmed the first hantavirus case to hit Europe was a man being treated in a Zurich hospital. The unmanned man and his wife had been on MV Hondius before traveling home from South America at the end of April.
Swiss health authorities have insisted the man is being isolated and that hantavirus poses “no threat” to the general public. The first person said to have contradicted hantavirus without being on board MV Hondius was a French national.
Health authorities in France confirmed they were monitoring the unnamed individual who was on board the same flight from Saint Helena to Johannesburg as the the Dutch woman who was infected on board MV Hondius. All 82 passengers and six crew on board the flight are now being tracked by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as close contacts.
In a seemingly chaotic evacuation of a MV Hondius passenger from Gran Canaria, they were placed on a commercial plane for an unspecified length of time before being moved to another “medicalised” aircraft. The second jet flew to Amsterdam, Holland with the patient on board where they will be treated at a hospital.
The initial plane then flew with the crew only to Valencia, Spain to refuel before taking off again for Rotterdam. The Spanish ministry for health insisted all health protocols were followed.
UK
Two Brits who were aboard the cruise ship hit with the deadly rat-borne virus touched down in the UK last night and are now self-isolating at home. Currently neither individuals are reporting symptoms despite being classified as “close contacts” of infected passengers.
The UK Health Security Agency has said the evacuated Brits pose “a very low risk” to the general public. A UK Health Security Agency spokesman said: “They are receiving advice and support from UKHSA and have been advised to self-isolate. UKHSA are supporting a small number of individuals identified as close contacts of those on the boat.
“They are being offered support and are also self-isolating. None are reporting any symptoms. The risk to the general public remains very low.”
USA and South American ‘source’
Health agencies across three US states are monitoring residents who were on board MV Hondius. The US citizens have returned to their homes in Georgia, Arizona and California after traveling on the ‘rat virus’ vessel.
“The individuals are currently in good health and show no signs of infection. They are following current recommendations from CDC,” the Georgia DPH said in the statement.
It comes as a couple’s trip to watch birds at a landfill site may be the source of the hantavirus outbreak on MV Hondius. Two Argentine officials investigating the hantavirus outbreak have said 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.
Full list of countries
- Zurich, Switzerland – Man, who was on MV Hondius, being treated in hospital
- Cape Verde – MV Hondius docked here and passengers disembarked
- Gran Canaria – Cruise ship passengers evacuated from here
- Amsterdam, Holland – Cruise ship passengers evacuated to here
- United Kingdom – Two cruise ship passengers self-isolating
- France – French man being monitored after coming into contact with a confirmed case
- South Africa – Fatal case flew to Johannesburg
- Saint Helena – Confirmed case disembarked here and took plane to South Africa
- Valenica, Spain – ‘Hantavirus plane’ refuelled here
- Rotterdam, Holland – ‘Hantavirus plane’ destination
- Georgia, California and Arizona, USA – Cruise ship passengers being monitored