If you’ve scrolled through headlines or timelines this week, you’ve likely encountered news about Hantavirus, a rare and potentially fatal virus that was recently detected onboard a cruise ship off the coast of West Africa.
Our collective panic after the COVID pandemic has seen commentary and coverage of Hantavirus pick up over the past few days, but the deluge of information about the outbreak can make sorting through the details all-consuming.
Below, we’re explaining what the Hantavirus is and how it spreads, as well as the cruise ship outbreak, what the government has said, and where everything stands.
What is the Hantavirus?
The Hantavirus sits within a broader family of viruses carried by mice, rats and rodents. The animals can harbour the virus without becoming ill, but they shed it through their urine, droppings and saliva.
Humans can contract the virus when they come into contact with an infected rodent’s excrement — inhaling it when cleaning, farming, or otherwise disrupting the animal’s droppings or urine.
Hantavirus is primarily transmitted from rodents to humans, with human-to-human transmission extremely rare. Still, the consequences of infection are severe, with the fatality rate ranging between 35 per cent to 50 per cent for infected people, per the Mayo Clinic.
Symptoms of Hantavirus in its early stages include fatigue, fever, and muscle aches. Most infected people also experience headaches, dizziness, chills, and abdominal problems like nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
The disease proves fatal when it causes severe inflammation and fluid leakage in the lungs, triggering acute respiratory failure and cardiac shock.
Where did the recent Hantavirus outbreak begin?
The source of the recent Hantavirus outbreak was onboard the MV Hondius, a 42-night cruise ship operated by Oceanwide Expeditions and travelling from southern Argentina towards Cape Verde on the West African coast.
All up, the ship is carrying 88 passengers and 61 crew from 23 countries, according to the Oceanwide Expeditions website.
The outbreak was confirmed shortly after April 11, when a passenger died on board and was disembarked from the ship — with his wife dying on land two weeks later.
Another passenger was medically evacuated from the ship in South Africa, where they remain in an intensive care unit in a critical but stable condition.
A third person died on the cruise on May 2, prompting an investigation by the World Health Organisation [WHO] that led to testing and more cases being detected onboard.
At the time of writing, eight total cases of Hantavirus have been detected on the cruise ship, five of which were confirmed by laboratory testing with the remaining three cases suspected at this stage.
As for how Hantavirus got onboard the ship, two officials investigating the origins of the outbreak said the leading hypothesis is that a Dutch couple contracted the virus while bird-watching in southern Argentina before boarding, per The Sydney Morning Herald.
They said the couple visited a landfill during the tour and may have been exposed to rodents. Argentina has been consistently ranked by the World Health Organisation as having the highest incidence of the rare, rodent-borne disease in Latin America.
Despite that hypothesis, the WHO said in a May 5 press release that investigations are continuing and that it is working with health agencies in countries near the ship to assess the risk and locate the origin.
Is the Hantavirus in Australia?
Four Australians were onboard the ship, but their identities have not been disclosed.
The confirmed cases have not yet been linked to the Australian passengers, and in a May 6 press release, the Australian Centre for Disease Control said “there are no reports of Hantavirus infection in humans in Australia”.
That press release came before reports emerging today that one Australian passenger has already returned home. A passenger still onboard the ship claimed to Spanish newspaper El Pais that 23 people disembarked from the ship in St Helena on April 21, ten days after the first person died on board.
Of those 23 people, the passenger said one was an Australian who has since returned home.
“The Australian went back to Australia, the one from Taiwan to Taiwan, the Americans to all corners of North America. The Englishman to England, the Dutch to their homes,” the passenger said.
The passenger’s claims in the El Pais report have not been verified by either the Australian Centre for Disease Control or the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trading.
In a statement per The Sydney Morning Herald, the Department reiterated the details already reported; that four Australians were aboard the ship and that it was not aware of any that had been affected by the outbreak.
Where is the Hantavirus cruise ship now?
The MV Hondius has been marooned for days off the coast of Cape Verde in the Atlantic Ocean. It was destined for the Canary Islands, but the regional government said it was opposed to the ship docking in the Spanish territory.
“This decision [to dock the ship] is not based on any technical criteria, nor is there sufficient information to reassure the public or guarantee their safety,” Canary Islands President Fernando Clavijo said, per The Sydney Morning Herald.
In response, Oceanwide Expeditions said it “remains in close and continual discussion with relevant authorities regarding our exact point of arrival, quarantine and screening procedures for all guests, and a precise timeline”.
Despite Clavijo’s objections, the plan is still for the ship to dock in the Canary Island of Tenerife within the next few days, where the WHO said “a joint health assessment and evacuation procedure will be put in place to repatriate all passengers”.
So, what’s next?
Health agencies are calling for calm. The WHO said the risk to the broader public remains low, with WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove saying “this is not the next COVID” and that “most people will never be exposed to this”.
Ann Lindstrand, a representative for the WHO in Cape Verde, reiterated the sentiment and stressed the extremely rare human-to-human transmission rate. “There needs to be a close contact, something being really close to be able to spread the disease from one to the other”, Lindstrand said.
As for those onboard, all passengers and crew are isolated in cabins, with moods reportedly switching from fear to boredom and uncertainty about when and how their journey will end.
Lead images: Getty Images and Oceanwide Expeditions
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