At least six U.S. states are monitoring people who disembarked a cruise ship where a rare, human-to-human transmissible strain of hantavirus has been confirmed, as the World Health Organization said at least 12 countries are now tracking passengers from the MV Hondius.
Three people have died, including a couple from the Netherlands and a woman from Germany, according to the WHO. The Dutch husband died on board on April 11, but because his symptoms resembled those of other respiratory illnesses, no samples were taken. "No samples were taken and because his symptoms were similar to those of other respiratory diseases, hantavirus was not suspected," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference Thursday.
The situation became more complicated when 30 guests disembarked the Hondius on April 24 at Saint Helena, a remote island in the South Atlantic, before hantavirus had been confirmed on the ship. Those passengers then returned independently to their home countries. Oceanwide Expeditions, which owns the vessel, confirmed the disembarkation on Thursday.
The countries currently monitoring former passengers include Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Five states specifically identified passengers from the ship: Georgia and Texas each have two individuals under monitoring, while Virginia, Arizona, and California each have at least one. State health officials said none of those individuals is showing symptoms. New Jersey separately said it is monitoring two people who may have been exposed to a hantavirus patient during a flight abroad. Those two were not on the ship and are also not showing symptoms.
Arizona health officials said the CDC notified them on May 5 that their state has one known former cruise passenger. That individual will be monitored for 42 days from the date of departure. Dr. Joel Terriquez, medical director of infectious disease and prevention for Northern Arizona Healthcare, said there is a very "low risk" to the public and no certainty that the passenger was even exposed to someone with the virus.
President Trump told reporters Thursday night that he had been briefed on the outbreak. "It's very much, we hope, under control," he said. "...I think we're gonna make a full report about it tomorrow. We have a lot of great people studying it, it should be fine, we hope."
The MV Hondius is currently off the west coast of Africa. The hantavirus strain confirmed on board is notable because, unlike the more common rodent-transmitted forms of the disease, it can spread from person to person.
