WHO says six hantavirus cases have been confirmed so far

A hantavirus outbreak tied to a cruise ship has left three people dead and six others confirmed infected, prompting a World Health Organization warning and plans to fly American passengers back to the United States.

“As of 8 May, a total of eight cases, including three deaths (case fatality ratio 38%), have been reported. Six cases have been laboratory-confirmed as hantavirus infections, with all identified as Andes virus (ANDV),” it said in a statement.

“WHO assesses the risk to the global population posed by this event as low and will continue to monitor the epidemiological situation and update the risk assessment”.

“The risk for passengers and crew on the ship is considered moderate,” it added.

“The Department of State is arranging a repatriation flight to support the safe return of American passengers on this ship,” a State Department spokesperson said.

A second plane believed to be carrying a sick passenger from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship MV Hondius arriving at the Schiphol airport, near Amsterdam

The State Department said it was working with the Spanish government and other US federal agencies on the response.

“We are in direct communication with Americans on board and are prepared to provide consular assistance as soon as the ship arrives in Tenerife, Spain,” the spokesperson said on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, the ship’s operator said 17 Americans were on board. The State Department did not immediately provide its own figure for the number of US passengers.

Three passengers from the MV Hondius – a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman – have died, and additional passengers have become ill with the rare disease, which typically spreads among rodents.

Tests have confirmed Andes virus, the only hantavirus strain known to spread from person to person, among those who were positive, heightening concern across borders.

The ship is due to arrive in Tenerife tomorrow.

From there, the flight will carry the American cruise passengers to Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, before they are transferred to a national quarantine facility at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said.

“At this time, the risk to the American public remains extremely low,” the CDC said.

Nebraska Medicine, a health care network, and the University of Nebraska Medical Center said the US citizens will be treated in the federally funded National Quarantine Unit.

“At this time, the individuals being monitored are well with no symptoms of illness,” they said in a statement.

The World Health Organization said the United States is among 12 countries whose nationals had already disembarked from the ship on 24 April on the remote British island of Saint Helena.

The developments came as a provincial official in Argentina said there was an “almost zero” chance that the Dutch man linked to the outbreak aboard the MV Hondius contracted the disease in the Argentine port of Ushuaia.

Juan Petrina, director of epidemiology for Tierra del Fuego province, where Ushuaia is located, told reporters that his conclusion was based in part on the virus’s incubation period.