Hantavirus at Sea: Another Cruise Passenger Dies After Flight to South Africa

The World Health Organization issued a notice today (Wednesday) to 82 passengers and six crew members who were on a flight that landed in South Africa 10 days ago. The concern is that those travelers, or some of them, may have been infected with hantavirus.

According to the notice, on an "Airlink" flight on April 25, from the island of Saint Helena to Johannesburg, there was a 67-year-old Dutch woman who had been evacuated from the cruise ship "MV Hondius" after her 70-year-old husband died from hantavirus on board.

The cruise ship reported three deaths during the voyage due to the virus. However, the vessel, which was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, took no less than 18 days to reach land. It docked in the remote British territory of Saint Helena, where the bodies were brought ashore.

The woman accompanied her husband’s body and the next day boarded the flight to Johannesburg. During the flight her condition deteriorated, and upon landing she was rushed to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Even so, it took nine days before hantavirus was detected in her blood, confirmed by a PCR test.

The World Health Organization said it is urgently conducting contact tracing for all passengers who were on the "Airlink" flight to Johannesburg. So far, three deaths have been reported on the ship, with two confirmed and five suspected infections. The ship is currently anchored off the coast of Cape Verde and had planned to sail to the Canary Islands, where the Spanish government agreed to receive the passengers for medical care. However, today the islands’ governor announced that he refuses to allow the ship to dock and disembark patients on the island.

Hantavirus is considered dangerous to deadly. People are infected through contact with infected rodents. The virus can cause severe illness, including hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) and acute respiratory failure, which present with flu-like symptoms.