Two British nationals who were medically evacuated from a cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak are showing signs of improvement, global health officials have confirmed. One of them, a 69-year-old man, was taken to South Africa on April 27 and is receiving care at a private health facility in Sandton, Johannesburg.
The other Briton, Martin Anstee, 56, an expedition guide, was removed from the MV Hondius on Wednesday and flown to the Netherlands for specialist medical treatment. Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove of the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that two patients, including one Briton, remain hospitalized in the Netherlands, while another Briton is in intensive care in South Africa.
"I am very happy to say the patient in South Africa is doing better, and the two patients in the Netherlands we hear are stable. So that is actually very good news," she told a WHO press briefing. As of Thursday, there are eight suspected cases, five of which have been confirmed by lab tests as hantavirus, a rare family of viruses carried by rodents.
The outbreak, linked to three deaths, has been connected to a birdwatching trip to Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay that two passengers took before boarding the ship. Spanish authorities have granted permission for the ship to anchor in the Canary Islands despite local concerns, and the vessel left the shores of Cape Verde at 3:15 p.m. local time on Wednesday, according to tour operator Oceanwide Expeditions. It is expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife in the early hours of Sunday.
Morale on board has improved since the ship began its journey to Tenerife. Two doctors are on board, along with infectious disease experts from the WHO and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, who are conducting a medical assessment of everyone on the ship. While the public risk is low, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that more cases could emerge due to the incubation period of the Andes virus, a variant of hantavirus, which can be up to six weeks.
"While this is a serious incident, WHO assesses the public health risk as low," he said, thanking the ship's operator, passengers, and crew "who are going through a very difficult and frightening situation." Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud, director of the alert and response coordination department at WHO, said the organization does not expect the outbreak to become an epidemic, citing a similar outbreak in Argentina in 2018-19 that resulted in 34 cases.
Seven British people were among 30 from 12 nations who left the ship when it docked at the remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, including a Dutch woman who became unwell during onward travel and died. The woman was accompanying her husband's body, which was being repatriated after he died on the ship on April 11. On Thursday, a woman in Amsterdam, reportedly a flight attendant who came into contact with the deceased woman, came forward with potential symptoms.
Oceanwide Expeditions said guests who disembarked have been contacted. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has been asked whether it has been in touch with all seven Britons who left the ship on April 24. It previously announced that two Britons who had already returned from the vessel are isolating at home and do not have symptoms. Contact tracing is underway for anyone who may have sat next to them on the flight home.
Nineteen British nationals were listed as passengers on the MV Hondius, which was sailing from Argentina to Cape Verde, with four British crew members. UK health experts said British passengers on board will be asked to self-isolate in the UK for 45 days. Prof. Robin May, chief scientific officer at UKHSA, said: "For the broader public, not directly involved in this cruise ship, the risk here is really negligible."
The Foreign Office is arranging a charter flight to repatriate the remaining Britons on board who are not displaying symptoms once they dock in Tenerife in the coming days. According to UKHSA, none of the British citizens on board are reporting symptoms, but they are being closely monitored. May noted that the "most extreme case of incubation" of hantavirus "may be up to eight weeks," but the general consensus is that people need to isolate for "probably six weeks, and so that's the period of isolation, 45 days, that we're likely to be recommending."
Three people were taken off the ship on Wednesday to the Netherlands for treatment, including Anstee, an expedition guide and former police officer. Speaking from hospital, he told Sky News: "I'm doing OK. I'm not feeling too bad. There are still lots of tests to be done. I have no idea how long I'll be in the hospital for. I'm in isolation at the moment."
Source: www.theguardian.com