Cape Verde declines docking for cruise ship with suspected hantavirus

by · UPI

May 4 (UPI) -- Officials in Cape Verde have not allowed a cruise ship with a possible hantavirus outbreak to dock at the island nation after three passengers died.

The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius was anchored off the coast of Praia, Cape Verde, on Monday. Health officials in the country, though, said they wouldn't permit the ship to dock there "with the aim of protecting national public health," The Guardian reported.

Cape Verdean authorities said they were in touch with Dutch and British officials about the ship.

"This coordination has enabled a swift, safe and technically appropriate response, ensuring the clinical monitoring of patients and the preparation of all necessary precautionary measures, including a possible medical evacuation by air via air ambulance for patients under observation," they said.

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The Oceanwide Expeditions ship set sail from Argentina in March with 149 people from 23 countries. It's unclear how long the cruise was scheduled for, but the company offers 33-night and 43-night cruises aboard the ship.

Oceanwide Expeditions released a timeline of the illnesses in a news release Monday. They said one passenger died aboard the ship April 11 of unknown causes. He and his wife were disembarked on St. Helena on April 24.

On April 27, the company said it was notified that the wife also became ill and later died. Both were Dutch nationals.

The same day, another passenger became ill and was medically evacuated to South Africa. The British national was diagnosed with hantavirus and was in critical but stable condition.

On Saturday, a German patient died on board of unknown causes.

Oceanwide Expeditions said two crew members -- one Dutch and one British -- on board the ship have also become ill with respiratory symptoms, one "severe." Neither has been confirmed to have hantavirus.

The World Health Organization said that though there has been only one confirmed case of hantavirus, the three deaths and two other illnesses are being treated as suspected hantavirus, The Washington Post reported.