Hantavirus figures updated – as cruise ship at centre of outbreak nears the Canary Islands | UK News

The number of hantavirus cases linked to an outbreak on a cruise ship has risen to six, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

The figure, which includes three people who have died, has been confirmed through PCR testing to be Andes virus, a type of hantavirus.

The WHO said there were also two probable cases that are yet to be verified.

The outbreak was first reported on 2 May on board MV Hondius, a Dutch-flagged ship, which was carrying 147 passengers.

Another 34 passengers have already departed the vessel after the outbreak.

On Friday, UK health authorities said a third Briton who had been a passenger on the ship was suspected of being infected with hantavirus.

The person had disembarked on the island of Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory in the south Atlantic where the ship stopped in April, the UK Health Security Agency said.

Two other Britons who were on board the cruise ship have been confirmed to have the virus. One is being treated in hospital in the Netherlands, and the other in South Africa.

Four patients remain in hospital in South Africa, the Netherlands and Switzerland, while a suspected case sent to Germany tested negative.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday the situation “seems to be okay” when asked about the hantavirus.

“Not easy to pass on. So we hope that’s true,” he told reporters.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it plans to evacuate American passengers aboard the ship on a US government medical repatriation flight to Omaha, Nebraska.

Seventeen Americans on board, cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said.

The UK has also agreed to evacuate their citizens from the ship.

The ​ship left Cabo Verde on 6 May and will arrive on Sunday at Spain’s Canary Islands, ​where health officials have said they would allow passengers to disembark.

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Passengers will be taken to a “completely isolated, cordoned-off area”, the head of Spain’s emergency services Virginia Barcones said.

The WHO said the ​first case may have been infected before boarding, possibly ​from travels in Argentina and Chile, with the infection likely spreading on the ship.

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Hantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people.

The Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases.

However, a KLM flight attendant who fell ill after working on a flight carrying an infected cruise ship passenger from Johannesburg to Amsterdam on 25 April tested negative.

A Dutch woman whose husband died on the ship became too unwell to stay on the international flight to Europe and got off the plane in Johannesburg, where she died.

Dutch health authorities are undertaking contact tracing on passengers who had contact with the ill woman before she left the plane.