Three cruise ship passengers with suspected hantavirus infections were being flown for medical care in the Netherlands on Wednesday, as the ship floated near the Cape Verde islands, waiting for assistance.
Three people have died, and eight cases have been recorded, the World Health Organization says.
Some 150 passengers are stuck isolating in their cabins aboard the Dutch ship at the center of the deadly outbreak. The MV Hondius is waiting to sail to Spain’s Canary Islands. Watch a live view as it awaits help.
Hantavirus usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings. Samples from some of the patients tested positive for the Andes strain of the virus, the WHO said. That variant can spread between people and is found primarily in Argentina and Chile.
The cruise ship left Argentina on April 1 for a weeks-long polar cruise. Two Argentine officials investigating the outbreak say the government’s leading hypothesis is that a Dutch couple contracted the virus during a bird-watching tour at a garbage dump in Argentina, where they may have been exposed to infected rodents.
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