HEALTH authorities were racing to find a port for a cruise ship battling a suspected hantavirus outbreak Tuesday, as it remained off Cape Verde with passengers isolating after three people died.
The MV Hondius will head to Spain’s Canary Islands, the World Health Organization said, though Spanish authorities said no decision would be made on which port would receive the ship until epidemiological data on board had been analyzed. The priority is to evacuate two crew members who require urgent care — potentially to the Netherlands — and “then the ship can move”, the WHO epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director Maria Van Kerkhove told reporters in Geneva.
So far, two hantavirus cases have been confirmed and there have been five other suspected cases among the 147 people who were on the cruise from Ushuaia in Argentina to Cape Verde off west Africa, the WHO said. Three of those people had died, while one was critically ill and three others had reported mild symptoms, it said.
AFP
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