The hantavirus outbreak connected to the cruise ship MV Hondius has spread to 11 reported cases, with the World Health Organization reporting nine confirmed infections, as authorities in multiple countries continued evacuations, quarantines and clinical care for people sickened after exposure aboard the vessel.
In Paris, Dr. Xavier Lescure, an infectious disease specialist at Bichat Hospital, said Tuesday that a French woman infected in the outbreak is critically ill and is being treated with an artificial lung. Lescure described the device as life support that pumps blood through the artificial lung to provide oxygen and return it to the patient’s body, with the goal of relieving enough pressure on the lungs and heart to allow recovery time. He said the treatment is “the final stage of supportive care.”
The outbreak has also included three deaths, with health officials believing that a Dutch couple were among the first people exposed after traveling in South America before boarding the cruise ship. WHO identified the couple as the first cruise passengers infected with hantavirus, and the husband and wife later died.
With passengers and many crew members evacuated from the ship and taken to shore, the MV Hondius is now returning to the Netherlands to be cleaned and disinfected, according to the ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions. A total of 87 passengers and 35 crew were escorted off the vessel in Tenerife in protective gear in an effort that ended Monday night, and the Netherlands later arranged quarantine placements for those arriving on evacuation flights, the AP reported.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said confirmed and suspected cases have been reported only among the cruise ship’s passengers and crew, not in the wider population. “At the moment, there is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak,” Tedros said, adding that the situation could change and that the virus’s long incubation period means more cases are possible in the coming weeks.
Spain’s health ministry said Tuesday that a Spanish passenger became the latest person confirmed to be infected after testing positive for hantavirus once evacuated from the ship. The passenger was in quarantine at a military hospital in Madrid.
Separately, Argentina said its health ministry would dispatch a team of scientific experts to investigate the origin of the outbreak in the coming days. Argentine officials said the Dutch couple spent several months in Argentina and neighboring countries before boarding, and later died after the cruise, while Argentine authorities have pointed to a bird-watching tour that included a stop at a garbage dump where officials believed the couple may have been exposed to rodents carrying the infection, though local officials in the province where the cruise departed challenged the claim that it began there.
Dutch officials also reported infection-control steps after a passenger was treated in the Netherlands. Radboud University Medical Center said that 12 employees at the hospital in Nijmegen had to quarantine for six weeks after improperly handling bodily fluids, calling the “risk of infection … low” while describing the quarantine as a precaution. The hospital said the passenger arrived last week on one of the evacuation flights that landed in the Netherlands and later tested positive.
Hantavirus typically spreads from rodent droppings and usually is not easily transmitted between people, health officials said, though the Andes virus detected in this outbreak may spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms can include fever, chills and muscle aches, and usually appear between one and eight weeks after exposure, officials said. WHO has advised returning passengers to stay in quarantine for 42 days at home or in other facilities, while also warning it cannot enforce its guidance and that countries may handle monitoring differently.
In a statement after initial reporting, the Associated Press said its account was corrected to reflect that WHO reported nine confirmed cases worldwide, with two suspected cases reported but not confirmed.