Passengers isolating on cruise after Cape Verde ban over suspected virus deaths

Passengers are isolating aboard a cruise ship on which a suspected outbreak of hantavirus has killed three people, its operator said Monday, after Cape Verde refused them entry. The island nation’s denial to disembark came even as WHO Europe said the risk to the wider public remained low. People from Spain, Britain and the United States are among 23 nationalities of the 149 people aboard the MV Hondius.

They are under “strict precautionary measures” on the ship, its operator Oceanwide Expeditions said in a statement, including isolation, hygiene protocols and medical monitoring. The company has confirmed three deaths among those on board the cruise, which was travelling from Ushuaia in Argentina to Cape Verde off the coast of west Africa. Two died on board and one after disembarking the ship.

One passenger is in intensive care in Johannesburg and two others “require urgent medical care”, the statement said. Hantavirus, an illness usually transmitted to humans from rodents, has been confirmed in the passenger currently in intensive care in Johannesburg, the operator said. However, it has not yet been established whether the virus caused the three deaths, said Oceanwide Expeditions.

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The president of Cape Verde’s National Institute of Public Health (INSP) said that the ship “was not granted authorisation to dock at the port of Praia” off which it is anchored, in an interview with RTC public broadcaster late Sunday. The move was meant “to protect the Cape Verdean population,” Maria da Luz Lima declared, adding that “there would be no contact between the passengers and the country”. Spain’s Canary Islands are under consideration for disembarkation, “where further medical screening and handling could take place”, the operator said.

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