LIVE Hantavirus | Two seriously ill passengers are evacuated to the Netherlands, ‘people have infected each other on board’ | News

Emergency workers are working on it, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). remove of two seriously ill patients from the Dutch cruise ship Hondius. They are transferred to The Netherlands for treatment. According to infectious diseases director Maria Van Kerkhove, the patients are in serious condition stable condition.

“Two patients are still on board the ship and are being prepared medical evacuation to the Netherlands for treatment,” said Van Kerkhove. A third person also had mild feverbut according to her she is now doing well again. He no longer has any symptoms.

According to the WHO, they are working with the authorities to evacuate the two sickest patients The Netherlands and Cape Verde and the company behind the ship, Oceanwide Expeditions.

Probably are infected seven people hit with the virus. Three died, one is in hospital. Furthermore, no one on board has any complaints, according to the WHO.

A team of epidemiologists the Hondius cruise ship leaves on Tuesday afternoon inspect. “This will assist in decisions regarding the repatriation processes and the ship’s route,” the Spanish Ministry of Health said after consultation with the World Health Organization.

The medical experts need to go and take a look what the condition of those on board is and whether more people have symptoms. The ministry did not go into detail about what exactly the inspection will look like.

The cruise ship was allowed earlier do not dock in Cape Verde after passengers became ill. The Hondius may therefore continue sailing towards the Canary Islands, although the authorities there have suggested that it may be better if the vessel sails directly to the Spanish mainland.

There are still two people on board showing symptoms and are so ill that they have to be taken off the ship. According to the WHO, a third person is suspected of being infected, but he only has a mild fever. The test result is still awaited. It is still unclear whether it concerns a passenger or a crew member.

Passengers must remain in their cabins. There would be enough food and drinks on board, and disinfection is also being done.

World Health Organization (WHO) thinks people could have infected each other on board with the hantavirus. That could also have happened to the Dutch couple who died, a WHO expert said.

It’s not set in stone yet; the WHO ‘works with that assumption’. According to the WHO, the ship is sailing towards the Canary Islands.

Presumably found the first contamination takes place outside the shipand the virus came on board later, said Maria Van Kerkhove of the WHO. “But we do think that there may be some human-to-human transmission between people with very close contacts. Between husband and wife, people who share huts, etc..” That is why people who assist patients must protect themselves well, Van Kerkhove said.

In addition to the two previously laboratory-confirmed infections with the hantavirus on a Dutch cruise ship, there are: five suspected cases identified. This is reported by the World Health Organization WHO.

The WHO says that in addition to the three deaths, there is one seriously ill patient and three people with mild symptoms.

The outbreak of a fatal disease on the MV Hondius is a heavy blow for the Flushing cruise line Oceanwide Expeditions. It is not the first time that the shipping company has faced significant headwinds. But the organizer of adventurous sea trips has still recovered.

The Dutch couple who died of the hantavirus comes out Friesland. The couple was known locally and among nature lovers as avid bird watchers. They just came back from one long trek through South America and concluded their adventure with a trip on a ship from the shipping company Oceanwide Expeditions from Vlissingen.

On On April 11, disaster struck for the first time: the man died unexpectedly on board. The cause of death could not be determined at sea.

Nearly two weeks later, on April 24, his body was disembarked on the island of Saint Helena. His wife left the ship to accompany him on the repatriation to the Netherlands. During that return journey she herself became unwell. She died in a South African clinic on April 26.

An outbreak of the hantavirus is said to be responsible for the tragedy on the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius. Three passengers died, including two Dutch people, and one person is in intensive care in the South African city of Johannesburg. How dangerous is that virus that can jump from mouse to human? Virologist Marion Koopmans explains.