Hantavirus Purportedly Kills 3 on Cruise Ship

Three people have died and four more are ill after a cruise ship was hit by a suspected outbreak of hantavirus, Reuters reported.  Hantavirus, a rodent-borne virus, can cause fatal respiratory illness, resulting in death in 40% of cases. No specific drugs exist to treat hantavirus, and treatment focuses on supportive care, including putting patients on ventilators.

The MV Hondius, a Netherlands-based cruise ship, has 148 people on board, who will not disembark to protect the local population, Sky News reported. The ship currently is anchored outside Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, an island nation in ​the Atlantic west of Africa. The cruise departed from Argentina about three weeks ago ​with around 150 passengers and stopped in the Antarctic and other locations on ⁠its way to Cape Verde, according to media reports.

 The World Health Organization said it was investigating the outbreak, and lab tests have ​confirmed hantavirus in two of the six people.

Hantavirus can spread when rodent droppings and urine become airborne, such as when people clean and sweep areas where mice have been living. WHO said the virus can spread between people in rare ​cases.

As CMM previously reported, pianist Betsy Arakawa, actor Gene Hackman’s , died of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome last year in New Mexico. Hantavirus was first recognized in 1993 and has since been identified throughout the United States, with most cases occurring in Western states. As of the end of 2023, 890 cases of hantavirus disease were reported in the United States since surveillance began in 1993, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).