The operator of a Dutch-flagged cruise ship at the center of the first known hantavirus outbreak on a cruise vessel said Wednesday it expects to determine by the end of the week whether the ship will keep its scheduled Arctic sailings, after three passengers died and nine confirmed cases of the rodent-borne illness were identified. Oceanwide Expeditions told The Associated Press it is awaiting official guidance on disinfection protocols as the MV Hondius sails toward Rotterdam with a skeleton crew, two health workers, and the body of one of the deceased passengers.
The outbreak was first confirmed earlier in May while the vessel was in the Atlantic. In addition to the three fatalities and nine confirmed cases, two suspected cases have been identified. The Andes virus variant implicated in the outbreak can have an incubation period of up to eight weeks and carries a mortality rate of up to 50%, according to the World Health Organization. There is no specific treatment or cure, though early medical attention can increase the chance of survival.
More than 120 people — all passengers and some crew members — were evacuated from the Hondius in Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday and Monday and are now in isolation in several countries. Twenty-five crew members remain aboard the vessel alongside the two health workers.
Asked on Monday whether it would amend its cruising schedule, Oceanwide Expeditions said it did not “foresee changes to our operations,” which included a new cruise beginning May 29 from Keflavik, Iceland. But by Wednesday, the company told the AP it expected “clarity on whether the vessel will sail and the sailing schedule by the end of this week,” adding that a ship “cannot sail without official authorization.”
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said Wednesday the genome of the hantavirus from the outbreak has been completely sequenced. Andreas Hoefer, who oversees the operational coordination of the European Union’s reference laboratories for public health, said there is “no data to suggest that this virus is behaving differently in terms of transmissibility or severity from any of the known virus circulating in certain regions of the world.”
The ship is expected to arrive in Rotterdam on May 17 or 18, where it will “undergo a thorough cleaning and disinfection process,” Oceanwide Expeditions said. The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment confirmed it is working on the disinfection protocol but shared no further details.
Experts said future passengers are likely safe after proper cleaning. Normal disinfectants and ultraviolet light are enough to kill the virus, said Erik Hill, a virus expert at Seton Hall University. He explained that someone would need to be exposed to a large enough dose of the virus to get sick, which is why people cleaning rodent droppings in enclosed spaces are most at risk. The virus does not survive well on touch surfaces, he added.
Dr. Max Brito, vice president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said that “with proper disinfection and sterilization practices, I think it should be OK to go back to operations within a reasonable time.” Based on the hypothesis that the first patients were exposed on land and reports that ship officials found no rodents on board, the risk to passengers on the next cruise should be low, Brito said. “I don’t want to say that it’s a one-off but, as it’s shaping up to be, it’s a very specific outbreak and it’s probably not so easy to reproduce in the same way.”
The virus usually spreads from rodent droppings, urine, or saliva and is not easily transmitted between people, though the Andes virus may spread between people in rare cases. Oceanwide Expeditions said it has no indication of any rodents on board and operates under strict hygiene and safety protocols. Much remains unknown about the hantavirus, including exactly how long it can survive outside a host and why it can be mild for some people