Around 40 passengers from the cruise ship affected by a deadly hantavirus outbreak disembarked on the island of Saint Helena following the death of the first passenger, which occurred on April 11. The information was released this Wednesday by the authorities of the Netherlands.
The 40 passengers, including the wife of the Dutch citizen who died on board, left the Dutch-flagged vessel during a stopover in Saint Helena, a British overseas territory in the Atlantic, before its arrival in Cape Verde, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague reported on Wednesday.
The Dutch company operating the ship had previously stated that the wife of the first patient to die on board had left the cruise in Saint Helena to accompany her husband’s body. The woman later traveled to South Africa on a commercial flight and died after falling ill in Johannesburg. However, the company had not reported the departure of other passengers from the cruise ship in Saint Helena.
Authorities in South Africa and Europe are attempting to trace the contacts of any passengers who left the cruise. On Wednesday, it was revealed that a man who had disembarked from the cruise in Saint Helena and traveled home was hospitalized with hantavirus in Switzerland. Dutch authorities are unaware of the whereabouts of the remaining passengers who disembarked at that time.
Read more about this topic: Hantavirus: suspected cases evacuated to the Netherlands (with video)
A British man was evacuated from the ship to South Africa days later, and three people, including the cruise doctor, were evacuated while the vessel was off the coast of Cape Verde and taken to Europe on Wednesday. Meanwhile, two British citizens who returned to the United Kingdom after being on board the MV Hondius cruise ship, affected by the hantavirus outbreak, have voluntarily self-isolated but do not show symptoms of infection.
According to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the two passengers left the cruise ship in late April, “near the island of Saint Helena,” and returned to the UK via Johannesburg, South Africa. According to the British health body, the two passengers contacted authorities as soon as they learned of the outbreak on the MV Hondius.
Three people traveling on the cruise ship died following its departure a month ago from Ushuaia, the southernmost city in Argentina. Meanwhile, a 56-year-old British man is in stable condition after being evacuated from the ship on Wednesday, along with two other people.
About 150 people remain on board the cruise ship under strict precautionary measures. The ship, which was destined for Cape Verde, is expected to arrive this weekend at the port of Granadilla de Abona, on the island of Tenerife, in the Spanish archipelago of the Canary Islands.
