An Australian has already returned home after being onboard the virus-hit MV Hondius cruise ship. Around 23 passengers have already gone back to their home countries, with one already testing positive for hantavirus – a disease with a 40 per cent mortality rate.
In a worrying update, authorities revealed that a passenger and his wife had tested positive for hantavirus in a Zurich hospital since leaving the ship.
Swiss authorities said the virus can lie dormant for up to eight weeks, and that the man had tested positive since returning home from his trip in South America.
He went to hospital after cruise line operator Oceanwide Expeditions emailed passengers about the spreading virus.
The passengers who had already left the ship did not know about the virus before they did so.
“There are 23 people wandering around there, and until three days ago, no one had contacted them,” one passenger told Spanish newspaper El País.
“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… I don’t remember the rest.”
Hantavirus is spread through mouse or rat faeces or urine, though the WHO suspects this variant carries a rare strain that can be transmitted from human to human.
Three people have now died as a result of the outbreak. The MV Hondius, operated by Dutch tour company Oceanwide Expeditions, was sailing between Argentina and Cape Verde when the outbreak occurred. A Dutch couple – aged 70 and 69 – are among the dead, along with a third passenger from Germany who died on 2 May.
