Suspected hantavirus outbreak investigation continues

已複製連結

A sick passenger onboard a cruise ship has been tested positive for hantavirus. This comes after three died from a suspected outbreak of hantavirus. 

No one has been allowed to disembark the MV Hondius cruise ship after the three reported deaths on Sunday. Three others, including a British national who's been tested positive for the virus, have been left serious ill. Roughly 150 people are still aboard, where the ship has been sitting off the coast of Cape Verde since Monday.

World Health Oraganization doctor Dr. Ann Lindstrand
told The Associated Press in an interview they were planning for medical evacuations, in which passengers would be taken from the ship via ambulance to an airport.

It is unclear how the suspected outbreak began. Lindstrand said there was a possible new case on the ship, in a person showing mild fever symptoms, but health workers were still assessing.

Hantavirus is a rodent-borne illness spread by contact with rodents or their urine, saliva or droppings. WHO says that while it is rare, hantavirus may spread between people.

The MV Hondius, a Dutch ship on a weekslong polar cruise from Argentina to Antarctica and several isolated islands in the South Atlantic, had requested help from local health authorities after making its way to the island of Cape Verde, off the West Africa coast.