travel

Health officials track dozens who left virus-stricken ship after first fatality

• The ship’s operator and Dutch officials said Thursday that more than two dozen passengers from at least 12 countries left the MV Hondius at remote St. Helena on April 24 without contact tracing — nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board.
• Three people have died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome: a Dutch man who died on the ship April 11, his wife who died after disembarking and flying to South Africa, and a German woman who died May 2.
• The World Health Organization confirmed the first hantavirus case on May 2, eight days after the mass disembarkation, and is now coordinating with authorities in multiple countries to trace contacts of those who left and their subsequent contacts.
• Health authorities in Singapore, Switzerland, South Africa, France, and the Netherlands are monitoring or isolating passengers and contacts, while St. Helena has ordered high-risk contacts to isolate for 45 days.
• A Dutch flight attendant who briefly boarded a plane with an infected passenger has developed symptoms and was being tested in an isolation ward in Amsterdam, Dutch health officials said Thursday.
• The Andes virus, the strain involved, is the only hantavirus thought to spread between humans; Argentina, where the outbreak likely originated, has yet to dispatch a team to investigate the suspected source.